The New York Yankees are red hot on the season and have the best record in baseball. But tougher competition is on its way as the Tampa Bay Rays come to town. Will the Rays cool off the Yankees and battle back in the AL East?
Let’s see what the MLB odds tell us at the top sportsbooks! Here are our best bets and predictions for tonight’s AL East game between the Rays and Yankees.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022 – 07:05 PM EDT at Yankee Stadium
The New York Yankees will send out Gerrit Cole, who has a 3.63 ERA on the season. In the last 30 days, Cole has had a 3.31 xFIP with 31.1% of strikeouts and 4.1% of walks.
However, righties currently have a .346 wOBA and ISO of .258 in the last 30 days against Cole. He’s giving up a whole lot of power to righties lately.
On the other hand, former Yankee, Corey Kluber will get the start for the Rays. He has a 3.88 ERA on the year and an xFIP of 4.41 in the last 30 days.
Kluber has also struck out 23.3% of batters in the last 30 days with 2.9% of walks in those same 30 days.
Kluber, like Cole, is allowing a bit of power to righties but hasn’t cracked like Cole has when it comes down to it.
On paper, the Yankees should have this game.
The Rays only have two consistent bats in their lineup between Ji-Man Choi and Randy Arozarena. Yandy Diaz has a .347 wOBA in the last 30 days against righties while Brett Phillips has a .192 ISO against righties in the last 30 days. But that’s about it in the Rays lineup.
The Rays have given Cole trouble before, however, so it’s not a given that Cole will have success against this Rays lineup.
Meanwhile, the Yankees have been able to beat up bad teams all year and now have a lineup that is just absolutely red hot. Things will eventually cool off, especially against a Rays pitching staff that is usually spotless for the most part.
Kluber has limited walks at a high rate and is earning a solid amount of strikeouts. Plus, the Yankees have just 15.6% of line drives hit against righties in the last 30 days. That’s also something to consider in this game.
The right-hander has also been tremendous against lefties, holding lefties to a .242 wOBA and ISO of .067 in his last 49 plate appearances against lefties.
Following the betting odds, I’ll take the Rays +1.5 on the run line for my MLB picks of the day.
The Yankees are likely going to cool off on the offensive end in this series. But with the series at home, the Yankees still have an advantage with their lineup. On the other hand, Gerrit Cole has struggled to keep the ball in play recently and has had his struggles against the Rays before.
Therefore, I expect this game to be close throughout and believe the Rays can stick around against Cole and the Yankees with a couple of early runs to rattle Cole a bit.
Score Prediction: Rays 4 - Yankees 3
MLB Pick: Rays +1.5 (-110) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.