Baltimore Orioles vs. Toronto Blue Jays – MLB, September 26, 2020

The Baltimore Orioles will wrap up their 2020 campaign in Buffalo this weekend. They opened a three-game set against their divisional foes Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night, carrying a 24-33 record as the fourth-best team in the AL East. 

On the other side, the Blue Jays entered the series with a 30-27 record. They were a couple of games behind the second-placed Yankees, so the Blue Jays will almost certainly have to settle down with the No. 8 seed in the American League.

Only two days are left on the regular-season schedule, so I’m bringing you the best Orioles vs. Blue Jays betting pick for Saturday, September 26, along with the latest odds and team news.

The Blue Jays might have something to play for here (check out Friday’s results), so they opened as -140 favorites on Bovada Sportsbook.

Excluding the opener of this set, the Blue Jays are 6-1 against the O’s in 2020. The Orioles snapped a six-game skid with a 4-3 victory on the last day of August, but they were 4-14 over the previous 18 encounters with the Blue Jays.

The Orioles have been awful of the last few weeks, losing 12 of their previous 16 games overall. At one point, it looked like the O’s could sneak into the playoffs, but it won’t happen mostly because of their offensive woes in September.

Still, the O’s went off on two occasions, thrashing of the Braves 14-1 and Red Sox 13-1. They are scoring 4.56 runs per contest (17^th in the majors) while batting .258 (7^th) and slugging .429 (13^th).

Baltimore will start John Means on Saturday, and the 27-year-old southpaw is 2-3 with a 5.02 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in nine starts this season. Means has been terrific over his last three outings, surrendering only three earned runs on 11 hits and a couple of walks through 17.2 innings of work in the process.

On the other side, Matt Shoemaker will get the starting nod, his seventh in 2020. The 33-year-old righty is 0-1 with a 4.71 ERA and 1.08 WHIP, but he’s pitched only 12 innings in total over his last three starts.

The Blue Jays entered Friday’s game with four wins in their last five outings. They just beat the Yankees 3-1 in a four-game home set, and three of four contests produced 13 or more runs in total (Toronto won 11-5 and 14-1 but lost 12-1).

At the moment, the Blue Jays have the ninth-highest scoring offense in baseball, tallying 4.95 runs per game while slashing .254/.325/.439 which are all above the league average.

John Means went off last Sunday and fanned 12 in 5.2 innings of work against the Rays. The lefty turned around his season after a shaky start, but I expect to see some regression against the Blue Jays. Back in August, Means tossed four innings in a no-decision against Toronto, allowing a couple of runs on four hits.

On the other side, Matt Shoemaker shouldn’t last for too long, and the righty is far away from his top form. This is a nice opportunity for the Orioles’ offense to hit well, so I’m going with the over on the totals. Also, the Blue Jays could calculate with their bullpen with the playoffs on a horizon.

The over is 7-4-2 in the last 13 meetings between the Orioles and Blue Jays.