The New York Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays in the third game of a three game division series against one of their rivals. The Rays won each of the first two games of this series with the Yankees scoring a total of one run between the two games. The Yankees are still 7-5 against the Rays this season and 3-2 at home, but their bats are starting to worry me. They haven’t scored more than three runs in a game in any of their last seven games and they’ve been shutout in two of their last three games. They are missing many key players to injury including Giancarlo Stanton, Matt Carpenter, and DJ Lemahieu, but they should still have the better lineup on paper today. The Rays won each of the first two games of this series and they didn’t need to score much to do it. However, they also struggle with scoring runs and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kevin Cash put out a bit of a random lineup after winning the first two games of the series.
Usually, I tend to go with underdogs in the middle of the week and at the end of a series, but a lot of underdogs won the first two games of their series this week, so my play will be on a favorite to avoid the sweep. Honestly, the Yankees have been terrible for a while now, but Corey Kluber has actually been much more hittable. Kluber has pitched well against the Yankees both times he’s seen them this season. He pitched six innings allowing one earned run in the first game, while pitching six innings and not allowing any earned runs in the second game. Domingo German has pitched really well since his first start off the IL, and it has been against four very good lineups too in the Mets, Mariners, Cardinals, and Red Sox. Clay Holmes has been injured and unavailable the past few days, but the rest of the Yankees bullpen is rested while the Rays bullpen is very worked after the first two games. Jason Adam has now pitched each of the last three nights as well for the Rays, so he should be unavailable. I will probably end up regretting it, but I have to go with the Yankees to avoid the sweep at home here.
John's Pick: Yankees -140 vs. Rays