Blue Jays vs. Pirates Prediction and Odds for Sunday, Sept. (Toronto Aiming for Series Sweep)

The AL East race all of a sudden got interesting.

The New York Yankees have been slumping (to say the least), and now the Tampa Bay Rays are only four games back from the division lead, and the Toronto Blue Jays are just six games back.

Toronto has a chance to take another step toward the Yankees today when it takes on the Pittsburgh Pirates with an opportunity to complete a three-game series sweep. Toronto has won by a combined score of 8-1 through the first two games.

Let's take a look at the odds for this afternoon's series finale:

Blue Jays vs. Pirates Odds, Run Line, and Total

Blue Jays vs. Pirates Prediction and Pick

Ross Stripling (2.94 ERA) gets the start for the Blue Jays this afternoon, and he'll face-off against JT Brubaker (4.39 ERA) of the Pirates.

Despite the Jays winning the first two games of the series, they're still not as hot offensively as they were at other parts of the season. In fact, dating back to August 1st, they rank just 18th in the Majors in OPS. While Pittsburgh, unsurprisingly, ranks 28th.

So, with this afternoon's total set at 8.0, I like the UNDER.

Stripling has been a solid part of Toronto's rotation, and while Brubaker has had some ugly starts this season, he can post some strong performances. In his last game against an AL East team, he went seven innings and gave up only two hits and zero earned runs against the Boston Red Sox back on August 18th.

Now, with a chance to face a Jays team that is experiencing some offensive struggles, I think we're going to see another low-scoring affair and the under will hit for the third-straight game.