It’s always a battle when teams in the toughest division in baseball face each other. And we have a good matchup on Tuesday with the first place New York Yankees hosting the two-time defending AL East champion Tampa Rays. Part of their success in winning the division was how they played against New York.
Over the previous two seasons the Rays won 19 of the 29 meetings. This season it’s been the Yankees time to dominate winning seven of the first 10 encounters including a three-game sweep in the Bronx in June. Some post All-Star break struggles reduced New York’s division lead to less than 10 games, but it’s hard to argue with a team that’s 30 games over .500.
Rays at Yankees Date & Time
This AL East matchup takes place on Tuesday, August 16, 2022 at 7:05 p.m. ET from Yankee Stadium. The game will air live on TBS with betting options for every game on the 2022 MLB schedule available at BookMaker.eu.
Rays at New York Yankees Odds
Tampa Bay Rays (Check Back Later)
New York Yankees (Check Back Later)
Total (Check Back Later)
Season So Far…
The Rays aren’t the first thing to pop in your head when thinking about the AL East, but they should be high up on the list. They’ve enjoyed a nice run of success winning at least 55.6 percent of their games in each of the previous four seasons, reaching the playoffs in the last three. Their run of division titles is likely to end this season but the playoffs are still very much a possibility. If the Rays are going to continue their postseason streak they’ll have to continue playing well against their division. Sure they’ve sucked when playing New York winning just three of the first 10 games, but they are 23-15 against the rest of the division and have proven in the past they can handle the vaunted Yankees.
One way to slow down a top offense is with good pitching and the Rays have that. They rank fourth in MLB with a staff ERA under 3.50 and they held the Yankees to two runs or less in half the meetings. They failed to win because they have a hard time scoring. The teams combined for 12 runs in New York’s three-game sweep at Yankee Stadium in June with two of the contests going below the closing total. The UNDER is 6-4 in the season series.
You know you’re good when suffering through a 1-8 stretch doesn’t affect your place in the division standings and still leaves you around 30 games over .500. A road trip that saw the Yankees get swept in St. Louis followed by dropping two of three in Seattle and the series opener in Boston was troubling, but returning home should help solve some of the issues. That’s because the Yankees are the best home team in MLB sporting a 41-15 mark inside Yankee Stadium. And they swept an earlier set from the Rays giving up just four runs in the three games.
Probable Pitchers
Without a start over 84 games the previous three seasons, Jeffrey Springs (4-3, 2.56 ERA) has made a successful transition in 2022. He opened the year in the bullpen tossing seven shutout innings over seven appearances He’s been pretty good as a starter, too. In 15 starts covering 74 innings, Springs has a 2.92 ERA and 1.15 WHIP giving up 70 hits with 15 walks and 80 strikeouts. He’s allowed two earned runs or less in nine of his starts including his most recent outing when he yielded two runs on four hits with eights Ks against Milwaukee. The Rays lost that game falling to 10-5 in Springs’ starts. He made his first career start against the Yankees in May giving up two runs on five hits with six strikeouts in six innings. In nine lifetime appearances against the Bombers Springs is 1-0 with a 2.81 ERA and 1.13 WHIP over 16 innings.
I don’t think many saw what Nestor Cortes Jr. (9-3, 2.67 ERA) has done this season coming. In 64 games that included 16 starts over his first four years he was 7-5 with a 4.66 ERA and 1.37 WHIP. Now he’s in the conversation for the AL Cy Young Award with his strong campaign. Cortes allowed more than three runs in just three of his 21 starts, one of those coming against the Rays in June when he was tagged for four runs on six hits over 4.1 innings. In his other two starts against Tampa he’s been great allowing one run in each of those games covering 14.1 frames. And Cortes has been lights out at Yankee Stadium going 4-0 with a 2.06 ERA and 0.94 WHIP across 52.1 innings.
Rays at New York Yankees Predictions
Everybody loves an underdog, but does Tampa still fill the role after what they’ve done the past few seasons? I suppose they always will be when competing against the Yankees and Sox. And the Bombers are competing at a much higher level this season giving them a big lead. And they are money at home winning 73.2 percent of their games entering the series.
Our Prediction: New York Yankees / UNDER
