The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays will square off for the second of a three-game set at the Trop on Wednesday night. It’s time to continue our MLB odds series and make a Yankees-Rays prediction and pick.
The Yankees took the first game of this series by a score of 3-1 last night. New York has bounced back in a big way with wins in eight of their last 10 games to date. Despite the Rays struggles of late, they have won 11 of the last 15 head-to-head matchup's with the Yankees in Tampa.
Here’s how sportsbooks have set the opening Yankees-Rays odds.
MLB Odds: Yankees-Rays Odds
New York Yankees -1.5 (-122)
Tampa Bay Rays +1.5 (+102)
Over 7.5 Runs (+110)
Under 7.5 Runs (-130)
Why The Yankees Could Cover The Spread
New York took the opener of this series behind a huge outing from Jordan Montgomery and home runs from Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez. Montgomery was stellar for the Yanks, allowing just two hits in six innings of work. The bullpen came in and allowed just one more hit as they shut the door.
It's likely that the Rays offensive struggles will carry over as they have to face Gerritt Cole in this game. Cole is 4-1 with a 1.61 ERA on the season and hasn't allowed more than two earned runs in any of his seven starts this year. Although Cole's lone loss came against the Rays, he still had a dominant performance with two earned runs and 10 strikeouts in that game.
The Yankees offense didn't provide much support for Cole in that loss against the Rays. New York was struggling at the plate earlier in the year and only scored seven runs during that whole series. That should hopefully change in this game as the Yankees have scored at least four runs in seven of their last 10 games.
Why The Rays Could Cover The Spread
Tampa Bay has been very good against the Yankees overall this season as they swept the Bombers in the Bronx last month. The Rays have their usual low payroll and competent team that will make noise across the league. They don't seem to have their usual home field advantage, though. Tampa Bay is 7-11 at the Trop coming into this game.
Tampa will have their hands full against the Cy Young favorite in Gerritt Cole. After scrapping just three hits together last night, the Rays will have to find other ways to produce offense in the second game of this series. Cole has had some struggles against the Rays over the last few years, which is promising for a group that is desperate for some runs.
The Rays will go with their infamous opener strategy in this game as Collin McHugh will start and face the lineup one time through. They will then likely hand the ball to left-hander Ryan Yarbrough to face the lineup one time around himself. It's interesting to see Tampa continue to go to these two as they're ERA's are 7.36 and 4.58, respectively.
Final Yankees-Rays Prediction & Pick
There has been a lot of chatter supporting the under in this spot. I could certainly see it happening, but I'm reluctant to support it because of the Yankees offensive production of late. I'm confident that New York will jump all over the opener strategy and the below-average arms that the Rays will send out. Cole has been phenomenal, but has allowed at least two runs in his last four starts against Tampa. Gerritt will be lights out like he always is and the Yanks will provide a significant amount of run support to secure the win and the series.
FINAL YANKEES-RAYS PREDICTION: New York Yankees -1.5 (-122)
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