AL East Showdown in the Bronx – Rays vs. Yankees

Tampa Bay Rays vs. New York Yankees 7:05 ET

A pair of American League East rivals collide in the Bronx for the first of a tremendous four game series. BetOnline Sportsbook customers will get their chance to dig into all of the action when the surging Tampa Bay Rays (28-28, -$472) pay a visit to the New York Yankees (32-22, +$76). The Rays hold a 3-2 edge in the season series, and they swept the Yanks at New Yankee Stadium in a miniature two-game set back in the beginning of May. Both teams are playing well right now, as Tampa Bay has won five out of six since losing four straight to the Cleveland Indians, while the Yanks have won seven of their L/8 series.

Tonight, the boys in pinstripes are massive -200 favorites, while the ‘total’ has been lined at 9 under -120.

Manager Joe Maddon has gotten six straight quality starts from his rotation. LHP David Price was in that bunch for his fantastic 5.2 innings against the Twins on May 30th. Yes, Price still ran his pitch count far too high for just 5.2 innings of work, but he struck out a whopping 11 Twinkies and only gave up one run on five hits and two walks for his efforts. It appears as though spending some extra time in the minors this year to develop a curveball has really helped the pride and joy of Tampa Bay’s farm team, as his deuce has a ton of movement and will come in anywhere from 72 MPH to 80 MPH. That’s a drastic difference for a guy that can wing it up there at 98 MPH when he has to. Though he only has 23.0 innings in the regular season under his belt, Price has a K/9 of 11.35 for his career, and that number could improve today with a ton of impatient hitters in pinstripes trying to take advantage of the short porches and the wind tunnel that converts pop flies into home runs.

Opposing the Rays lefty phenom will be Yankees high priced off-season acquisition C.C Sabathia. The hefty southpaw got off to a slow start to his 2009 campaign, but has settled in nicely donning the pinstripes of late. He last faced his former club his last time out, and limited the Indians to just five hits and three runs to snag his fifth victory of the season. In his L/3 starts, Sabathia’s 2-0 with a 2.86 ERA & 0.95 WHIP with a K/BB ratio of 19/4 through 22 innings of work. The Yankees are just 2-3 in his five Yankee Stadium starts this season, but they’ve won two of his L/3 outings. C.C’s owned the Rays throughout his career going 7-1 with a 2.44 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 11 overall starts.

It’s pretty obvious that the MLB betting line in this game is heavily favoring the Yanks because of the names on the front of the jerseys. Yes, Tampa Bay’s lineup is a shell of its old self with three quarters of the starting infield not playing, but Price has pitched in bigger situations and excelled mightily. Even though some of the big boppers in the Rays’ lineup are out due to injury, Carl Crawford, Gabe Kapler, and B.J. Upton are a combined 10-for-27 (.370) in 27 career AB’s vs. Sabathia. The Yankees don’t have anyone with more than 2 AB’s against Price. With the familiarity the Rays offense has with Sabathia and the limited looks the Yanks have had against Price, this is just too juicy a line to pass up in this spot…

Rose’s Recommendation: 2* Tampa Bay Rays +170

(Rating Scale: 1* – 5*)