White Sox vs Blue Jays Picks and Predictions: Chicago Struggles to Solve Manoah

The Chicago White Sox offense is stagnant and depleted by injury and has the arduous task of facing budding Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah. As such, we're targeting the Under on both the overall score and Chicago's team total in our betting picks.

Zachary Cohen - Contributor at Covers.com
Jun 2, 2022 • 08:51 ET • 4 min read
Alek Manoah Toronto Blue Jays MLB
Photo By - USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Blue Jays are one of the hottest teams in baseball, as they enter Thursday’s meeting with the Chicago White Sox riding a seven-game winning streak. The Blue Jays already took the opener in this series, earning a 7-3 victory on Wednesday. 

Will Toronto stay hot and win its eighth game in a row? You’ll just need to keep reading our MLB picks and predictions to find out.

White Sox vs Blue Jays odds

This odds widget represents the best odds available for each betting market from regulated sportsbooks.

The White Sox opened as +145 underdogs, and they can now be had as high as +165. The shortest odds available on the moneyline at the time of this writing is +155. 

The total, which opened at 8.5, has mostly sat at that number. You can, however, find it at 8. 

Use the live odds widget above to track any future line movements right up until first pitch and be sure to check out the full MLB odds before placing your bets.

White Sox vs Blue Jays predictions

Picks made on 6/2/2022 at 2:20 a.m. ET.
Click on each pick to jump to the full analysis.

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White Sox vs Blue Jays game info

Location: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON
Date: Thursday, June 2, 2022
First pitch: 3:07 p.m. ET
TV: NBC Sports Chicago, Sportsnet

White Sox vs Blue Jays betting preview

Starting pitchers

Johnny Cueto (0-1, 2.41 ERA): Cueto had pitched 12 shutout innings this season before facing the Chicago Cubs in his third start when the righty gave up five earned on nine hits in 6 2-3 innings. It was a really rough performance from the veteran, who will now look to get back on track against a red-hot Blue Jays team. The 36-year-old hasn’t had a sub-4.00 ERA since 2018, so it’s likely he’s going to continue to turn in some lousy outings. 

Alek Manoah (5-1, 1.77 ERA): Manoah has been absurdly reliable for Toronto. The 24-year-old has allowed two or fewer earned runs in all nine of his starts this season, and he has also struck out at least five batters in six of those outings. Manoah is a legitimate Cy Young candidate in the American League, and he’ll now look to guide his team to another win. 

Weather

Be sure to monitor the gametime conditions with our MLB weather info.

Key injuries

White Sox: Tim Anderson SS (Out), Joe Kelly P (Out), Eloy Jimenez OF (Out), Ryan Burr P (Out), Yermin Mercedes DH (Out), Garrett Crochet P (Out), Lance Lynn P (Out).
Blue Jays: Tim Mayza (Out), Nate Pearson P (Out).
Find our latest MLB injury reports.

Betting trend to know

The Blue Jays are 47-22 in their last 69 games against teams with losing records. Find more MLB betting trends for White Sox vs. Blue Jays

White Sox vs Blue Jays picks and predictions

Our side and total predictions are based upon our analysis of the line and total in this game. Our best bet is our favorite pick across all markets.

Moneyline analysis

The red-hot Blue Jays are 47-22 in their last 69 games against teams with losing records dating back to last season, basically ensuring that they're throttling the teams they're supposed to be beating. They’re also 6-2 in their last eight home game, and they’re facing a White Sox team that is 1-4 in its last five games against right-handed starters.

On top of that, Chicago is just 9-22 in its last 31 road games against teams with winning records. This White Sox team has been really disappointing this season, and it now faces a Blue Jays team that seemingly can’t lose after an up-and-down start to the season. And if that’s not enough, Toronto has one of its two best starters on the mound against a past-his-prime veteran. 

Cueto has turned in big performances quite often throughout his career, but his best days are far behind him. Now, the righty faces a Blue Jays team that is eighth in the league in isolated power against right-handed pitching, and Toronto is also ninth in weighted runs created in this split. The Jays have quite a few players capable of doing damage this afternoon but look no further than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer. Both players have good power numbers against righties this year, and they can break this game open with one swing of the bat. 

One of the chief concerns entering the season was that the Blue Jays were too righty-heavy in the lineup, but the split hasn't caused much consternation. Guerrero has hit nine of his 10 home runs against fellow righties while Springer is batting .271/.333/.514 with eight homers of his own against righties.

The Jays also don’t need to score a lot of runs to win as it’s hard to envision the White Sox finding much success against Manoah, especially with their best hitter, Tim Anderson, out with an injury.

Last year, Manoah had a 1.64 ERA over two starts against this Chicago offense, and the 24-year-old has only gotten better since. Manoah’s presence gives the Blue Jays the edge, and the team should also cover the run line — if you’re looking for a plus-money play. 

Prediction: Blue Jays moneyline (-180 at Unibet)

Over/Under analysis

Cueto doesn’t exactly have what it takes to continue rolling along with a sub-3.00 ERA, and he could find himself in quite a bit of trouble against a loaded Blue Jays lineup that is finally clicking into place. This is, however, a game in which Under bettors can stomach a performance in which Toronto scores five or six runs — and the Jays have scored six or more runs in six of their last seven games. That’s just a testament to how good Manoah is, and that’s why we like the Under on Chicago’s team total too. 

Manoah hasn’t yet been tripped up this season, and the righty should be able to handle a Chicago lineup that hasn’t been very good in 2022 and is missing some important pieces like Anderson and Eloy Jimenez. The Under is 8-1 in Manoah’s last nine trips to the hill and is also 10-2-1 in the White Sox’s last 13 road games against right-handed starters. 

Prediction: Under 8.5 (-110 at DraftKings)

Best bet

The White Sox have struggled to hit righties this season, as only seven teams in the big leagues have a worse batting average against them. Chicago has also scored fewer runs against right-handed pitching than all but three teams in the majors.

Manoah, as he evolves into one of baseball's elite starters, has allowed two or fewer earned runs in all of his starts this season.

If Manoah continues to make batters miss for six or seven innings, the White Sox will be hard-pressed to reach the four-run mark. Toronto’s bullpen isn’t elite, but it should be able to avoid completely undoing Manoah’s work, especially since the likes of Jordan Romano, Adam Cimber, and Trevor Richards all got the night off yesterday. 

Pick: White Sox team total Under 3.5 (-122 at Unibet)

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