Blue Jays vs. Athletics: Picks, predictions, how to watch Monday’s game

The Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland A’s square off on Monday with first pitch set for 9:07 p.m. EST. The game takes place at RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland, California and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. Alek Manoah will be on the bump for Toronto while the home team will see Cole Irvin get the start.

The Blue Jays sit in third place in the AL East, but barring a complete catastrophe, that division is already well locked up by the New York Yankees. Toronto is still in a decent Wild Card place but has been losing a bit of ground recently, having won just four of their last 10 games and eight of their last 20. Manoah has been dialed in all season though, allowing just 22 earned runs in nearly 100 frames of work.

Oakland is still the worst team in baseball, with just 26 wins on the season. They’ve lost 24 of their last 30 games and have won just one of their last seven games. Irvin comes into this with four straight losses, though he isn’t getting a ton of run support in any of those games. His ERA is well below 4.00 and yet he boasts a record of 2-6. He’s allowed more than four earned runs just one time in his last seven starts, and that was against the mighty Yankees, so it’s barely even his fault.

Blue Jays vs. Athletics

Pitchers: Alek Manoah vs. Cole Irvin
First pitch: 9:07 p.m. ET
Blue Jays local broadcast: SportsNet
A’s local broadcast: NBC Sports California
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)

Odds, picks & predictions

Run Line: Blue Jays -1.5
Run total: 7.5
Moneyline odds: Blue Jays -240, A’s +200

Moneyline pick: Blue Jays -240

You really shouldn’t have to think about this one all too hard. The Jays haven’t been all that great recently, but they’ve been a whole lot better than Oakland. Plus, they have their ace on the bump, so it would be a big upset of the A’s pull one out here.

Player prop pick: Alejandro Kirk over 0.5 hits (-245)

Kirk has 11 hits in his last 10 total games, including two of his 10 home runs on the season in that span. He’s also batting 1.000 against Irvin in his career, though it is a small sample size. He’s got a single and a home run in two career at-bats against the A’s lefty.

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