White Sox vs. Blue Jays prediction and odds for Tuesday, April 25 (Is Berrios Turning it Around?)

Most teams that are off to a 14-9 start are leading their divisions, or might be a game or two out of first, not six games back like the Toronto Blue Jays are in the AL East.

They’re third with that record behind Tampa and Baltimore.

Yesterday the Blue Jays welcomed the Chicago White Sox north of the border and handed them a 5-2 loss. Chicago is now 7-16. 

The starting pitchers tonight are Jose Berrios and Mike Clevinger. Berrios is 1-3 with a 6.23 ERA while Clevinger is 2-1 with a 3.26 ERA. Let’s get into the odds for Game 2 of this American League series in Toronto. 

White Sox vs. Blue Jays odds, run line and total

White Sox vs. Blue Jays prediction and pick

I have been fascinated by Jose Berrios’ time in Toronto. He was a disaster last season and I found that fading him just about every start was the best strategy. However, he’s had two solid starts in a row now and there are some signs that he could become a quality starting pitcher once again. 

Now, Berrios does have an ERA north of six, but his fielding independent pitching is 2.68 this year which is the best of his career, though in a small sample.

A year ago, his strikeouts per nine innings was at 7.8 which was his worst since his rookie season. This year, that’s turning around some and his strikeout percentage is league average, right at 50th percentile.

His walks per nine is back down under two per nine innings, which is also important to a possible turn around. Another sign pointing to improvement is that his batting average on balls in play is still .333, which would be his highest since 2016 and should regress down. That comes while his ground ball rate is up and he was allowing far too many fly balls and line drives a year ago. 

I’m not certain that Toronto will ever get the top-of-the-line starter that they hoped for when they traded for Berrios, but I think he could be turning things around right now and for that reason I’ll back the Blue Jays tonight. 

Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change