MLB Baseball
2011-07-21 - New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: MLB Baseball
Thursday 21 July 2011 - First Pitch 7:10pm ET
12:10am (British Standard Time)
Preview
This is the final game of a 4 game series between these two American League East rivals. The New York Yankees (57-38) are 2-1 up so far, and have increased their lead over the Tampa Bay Rays (51-45) while remaining 1.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees shut the Rays out last night in a 4-0 win and Tampa Bay have scored just 7 runs in their last 42 innings. That leaves the Rays 8 games behind Boston, their largest deficit of the season, and they need to find a way to warm up their bats as soon as possible.
That wont be easy as they face CC Sabathia tonight. Sabathia is 14-4 with a 2.64 ERA this season and has the chance to become the Major League's first 15 game winner of the season. The ace pitcher has won 7 consecutive games and has allowed just 2 runs in his last 39 innings pitched.
Sabathia is 2-4 with a 3.76 ERA in 10 starts against Tampa Bay as a New York Yankee. However, he did win his only start against them this season when keeping the Rays off the scoreboard on July 10th.
It is actually Sabathia's birthday on Thursday, but he has not really fared well in the past on this special day. He has pitched 2 times previously on July 21st, and is 0-2 with a 9.35 ERA.
Tampa Bay will look to their own strong pitcher in James Shields to counter Sabathia on the mound. Shields is 8-8 this season with a 2.60 ERA and actually took the loss in the July 10th game with the Yankees when allowing just 1 run.
Shields is 3-10 against the Yankees with a 4.47 ERA. At home, that record becomes 1-5 with a 3.83 ERA.
Tampa Bay will be hoping they get more of the pitching they received from Shields in the 1-0 loss to the Yankees as he has been struggling a little of late. He is 0-4 in his last 4 starts and has a 4.00 ERA.
Head to Head
New York have improved to 5-3 in the season series so far with the win last night.
Tampa Bay are just 2-6 in their last 8 home games against New York with James Shields on the mound.
The Yankees have now won 4 of their last 5 games overall.
On the other hand, Tampa Bay have lost 6 of their last 8 games.
Tampa Bay are 0-4 in Game 4's this season, going 0-1 when coming in off a loss.
New York are 2-3 in Game 4's, but they have split 2-2 when winning Game 3.
Prediction
These two pitchers came up against one another a couple of weeks ago and ended up performing in a pitching duel that was eventually won by CC Sabathia when given 1 run of support from the offense.
The games between the two have been tight in recent meetings while the Rays' offense is really struggling to get things going at the moment.
It is always a risk taking against the Yankee offense that is capable of putting up lots of runs in a short period of time, but I think the Under 7 runs line may just give us a run for our money.
CC Sabathia has been pitching extremely well in recent games and he may just limit the Rays significantly enough to get the unders in the bag.
James Shields is also no slouch and has proven he can keep the powerful Yankees offense quiet with his performance a couple of weeks ago.
It's a little dangerous considering the Yankees are playing, but I have a feeling the Under 7 runs is worth a risk tonight.
The Pick :
Tampa Bay Rays 1-2 New York Yankees
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll back the Under 7 Runs @ 2.00 (Pinnacle)
