MLB Baseball
2012-05-15 - New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Tuesday 15 May 2012 - First Pitch 7:05pm ET
12:05am (British Standard Time)
Preview
The New York Yankees (20-15) came from behind to beat the Baltimore Orioles (22-14) in game 1 of this two game set at Camden Park and they will be looking to sweep the series and get that much closer to their fast starting American League East rivals.
New York have been in decent nick recently, winning 4 of their last 5 games and they have reached a total of at least 5 runs in 6 of their last 8 games. Baltimore themselves bounced back from a disappointing series loss to the Texas Rangers by taking two of three from the Tampa Bay Rays.
I expect the Yankees will feel they can complete the sweep of this two game set as they send CC Sabathia to the mound who will be looking to improve on his 5-0 start to the 2012 season and his 3.51 ERA. He has been improving those marks over his last 5 starts when he has brought his ERA down to 2.52 and lasted until the 8th innings in his last 4.
Sabathia also has great memories of facing the Orioles, going 16-2 from his last 23 starts against them and holding a 2.86 ERA. He also led the Yankees to a 6-4 win here on April 11th, although not factoring into the decision which saw New York win in extra innings.
Baltimore will counter with Wei-Yin Chen who has started his career with the Orioles with a 3-0 record and a 2.43 ERA. Chen has allowed 2 or fewer runs in 5 of his 6 starts for Baltimore and he held the Texas Rangers to just 2 runs, 1 earned, in just under 8 innings pitched in his last outing.
The pitcher did start against the Yankees earlier this season and held them to 4 runs, 2 earned, but he wasn't factored into the decision as the Orioles were beaten in extra innings. Chen did give up a Home Run to Derek Jeter in that game.
Head to Head
New York are leading the season series 5-2 having swept a three game set in Baltimore earlier this season.
Baltimore have lost 4 in a row at home against the Yankees and they are just 1-6 in their last 7 in the series at home.
Baltimore are 11-9 at home this season, New York are 9-7 on the road.
Prediction
This could be a low-scoring pitching duel to begin with, but the New York Yankees powerful batting line up did manage to get Wei-Yin Chen out early when they faced him for the first time earlier this season and that is when they could really make hay against the Orioles bullpen.
If CC Sabathia continues pitching to a similar standard as he has been in his most recent outings, it will be tough for Baltimore to score too many runs and the Yankees may just win this with a bit of room to spare.
If New York can get up to the 5 run total they have regularly reached in recent games, I think they will win this one on the run line.
The Pick :
Baltimore Orioles 2-5 New York Yankees
