The Toronto Blue Jays can complete a four-game sweep and take sole possession of first place in the American League East on Thursday when they host the New York Yankees on Thursday in the series finale at Rogers Centre, and one of the two starters for this series finale is worth keeping an eye on when making MLB player props and MLB strikeout props for Thursday’s MLB slate.
Toronto has won six of its last seven contests, including the first three of this set, to pull into a tie with New York for the top spot in the division. After squandering an early eight-run lead on Wednesday, the Blue Jays scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning and escaped with an 11-9 victory.
Chris Bassitt (7-4, 4.29 ERA) will start the finale for Toronto, which has scored 33 runs during its four-game winning streak and reached double digits in each of the last two contests. Bassitt fell to 3-1 lifetime against the Yankees when he yielded four runs over 5 2/3 innings at Yankee Stadium on Apr. 27.
New York counters with Clarke Schmidt (4-4, 3.09), who gave up four runs in a loss to the Athletics last Saturday after tossing 20 2/3 scoreless innings over his previous three starts. The 29-year-old right-hander is 0-3 against the Blue Jays in his career despite a solid outing opposite Bassitt in April in which he allowed just one run across five frames and settled for a no-decision.
Sportsbooks have set the total strikeout player props for Bassitt (Over -142, Under +109) at 5.5 and Schmidt (Over -104, Under -127) at 4.5. The SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every MLB game 10,000 times, rates Schmidt’s MLB strikeout prop of Over 4.5 as a 4.5-star play on its five-star scale and Bassitt Over 5.5 as a 3.5-star play.
In addition to Schmidt, the model has found more good value on Thursday’s 10-game schedule, as there is one pitcher strikeout player prop that it has rated at 5 stars and two others rated at 4.5 stars. Here they are:
Dietrich Enns Over 3.5 strikeouts (-164) vs. Nationals (6:45 p.m. ET)
Rating: 5 stars
Model projection: 5.1 strikeouts
The top-rated strikeouts prop of the day comes with Enns, who will make his second start of the season and the third of his career on Thursday. The 34-year-old lefty had a successful debut with the Tigers last Thursday, striking out four while allowing just one hit over five innings against the Athletics. He picked up the win in his first MLB appearance since 2021 when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays. Enns will be going against a Nationals lineup that likely will include James Wood, who is fifth in the National League with 102 strikeouts, and Nathaniel Lowe, who has whiffed 97 times this year.
Clarke Schmidt Over 4.5 strikeouts (-102) vs. Blue Jays (7:07 p.m. ET)
Rating: 4.5 stars
Model projection: 5.4 strikeouts
Schmidt has gone Over 4.5 strikeouts in nine of his 13 starts this year, including four of his last five outings. In his last start, Schmidt struck out seven in six innings, and he struck out six batters in a start against the Blue Jays earlier this season. In seven appearances (four starts, three relief outings) against Toronto in his career, Schmidt has 23 strikeouts in 22.2 innings, and he has struck out George Springer four times. Bo Bichette is 4-for-12 against Schmidt in his career but has struck out five times.
Logan Evans Over 3.5 strikeouts (-130) vs. Royals (10:10 p.m. ET)
Rating: 4.5 stars
Model projection: 4.6 strikeouts
Evans is back in Seattle’s rotation after the Mariners demoted Emerson Hancock this week, and the rookie right-hander has gone Over 3.5 strikeouts in four of his seven MLB starts, including each of his last three. His last MLB start came June 10, when he struck out five batters in five innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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