The New York Yankees have not played their best baseball recently and after going neck and neck with their rival Boston Red Sox in the AL East standings, they find themselves five games behind as of July 24, 2018. The Yankees are ranked in the Top 5 in runs scored and team ERA but while their line-up has been pretty good lately, their pitching hasn’t.
Tuesday was an exception though as the Yankees leaned on solid pitching to defeat the Rays 4-0 in Tampa Bay. Yankee starter Masahiro Tanaka allowed just three hits and struck out nine batters in a complete game effort. New York’s offense produced eight hits and drew one walk with Miguel Andujar going 2-4 (scoring twice) and Austin Romine delivering a pair of runs.
Pitching hasn’t been a big concern for Tampa Bay but generating scores has been. The Rays aren’t in the Top 20 in the majors in runs scored. On Tuesday, the Rays never found their groove on the plate as they struggled with only three hits. Jesus Sucre went 1-3 with a single while CJ Cron logged in a pair of hits. Uncharacteristically, their pitchers couldn’t hold their own against the visiting Yankees. Tampa Bay starter Yonny Chirinos gave up three runs on six hits in 6.2 innings to take the loss for the Rays.
Tampa Bay had their three-game win streak snapped on Tuesday but despite the loss, they are still above .500. However, being over .500 isn’t enough in a killer division like the AL East. Right now, the Rays are 19 games behind the division leaders Red Sox.
The Rays will send right-hander Nathan Eovaldi ( 3-4 4.26 ERA) on the bump to face the Yankees on Wednesday. In his last start, Eovaldi gave up one earned run while allowing six hits in six innings. But he did not earn a decision after his bullpen let him down and Tampa Bay lost 5-6 to the Miami Marlins.
Eovaldi has faced the Yankees only once this season and that was on June 15, 2018 where the Rays lost 0-5. Eovaldi gave up five runs on eight hits in 7 ⅓ innings pitched. In his previous start, Eovaldi could not get out of the third inning as he was bombarded with eight earned runs during an 8-11 loss to Minnesota. However, Eovaldi has not given up more than two earned runs in his last five starts.
Meanwhile, New York will end their series in Tampa Bay with Luis Cessa (1-1 3.0 ERA) on top of the mound. The Yankees are hoping that Cessa duplicates his last outing – a 10-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, where he didn’t give up any earned run and allowed only three hits in six innings.
That was only Cessa’s second start of the season as he spent two months on the DL. In his first game after coming off the DL, he pitched two scoreless innings as a reliever during a 2-1 loss to the Rays. New York has lost five of their seven road games with Cessa as starter but are four out of five coming off a quality appearance from Cessa.
Aaron Judge leads New York in both RBIs and homeruns. Judge is batting .325 for the month of July but he only has one homerun in his last 10 games. For Tampa Bay, Wilson Ramos leads the team in RBIs while batting .297 and hitting 14 home runs. However, Ramos will most probably be out of action until the start of August with a hamstring injury
Tampa Bay has lost seven of their last nine starts and have won just once in their last five starts when facing a team with a winning record. But the Rays are also undefeated in their last five games against AL teams and are 20-7 in their last 27 games at home. Tampa Bay is also 13-1 in their last 14 starts against a right-handed pitcher.
On the other hand, the Yankees are 1-4 in their last five games against right-handed pitchers. They are also 0-5 in their last 5 games SU against Tampa Bay and just 2-4 SU in their last six games overall. Likewise, the Yankees are 1-5 SU against the Rays in Tampa Bay. I like Tampa Bay’s SU trends against the Yankees. Both pitchers are coming off solid outings but in this game, I like Eovaldi’s chances against the Yankees. New York’s -160 price tag is a turn off too. I’m picking the Tampa Bay Rays to beat the New York Yankees on 7/25/18.
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