MLB Betting Picks – New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox Series Preview
Fans across the pond couldn’t ask for a better matchup for the first Major League Baseball games played in England. AL East rivals New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will introduce America’s pastime to the UK in a two-game series over the weekend.
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After completing a 9-1 homestand with a walkoff to sweep the Blue Jays on Wednesday, taking a few days off to travel might not be the best thing for the Yankees. The Bombers lead the division by seven-games and have a nine-game bulge over the Sox after winning 11 of their last 12 games.
We’ve been waiting all season for the defending champs to make a run and it hasn’t happened. The way Boston has played this season we’ll probably never see it. The series opens on Saturday, June 29 with a 1:10 p.m. ET first pitch. The game will air on FOX. The second game is set to begin at 10 a.m. ET on ESPN. Both games will take place at London Stadium.
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Odds Analysis
This isn’t going to be your typical series between these storied franchises, obviously. The long trip gives both clubs two days off prior to the opener and they will be the first games between them to take place on artificial turf. That’s right, the teams have been playing each other for over a century and Friday’s contest will be the first not to take place on grass.
There are a few ballparks left around the league that have artificial surface and two of them are in the AL East, so it isn’t completely new to both clubs. The Sox are 7-3 this season in games on turf while the Yankees are 3-5.
The Yankees have the hot hand coming in, though. They made a statement on their recent homestand sweeping their closest pursuer in the division Tampa Bay and taking three of four from West-leading Houston. They capped it off with a sweep of Toronto, winning the last two each by one run. Overall the Yankees have won 11 of 12 coming in to increase their division lead.
A trip to Europe is cool but it isn’t a vacation, and Sox manager Alex Cora said as much. “It’s not a vacation. We’re chasing the Yankees right now and those two games are important.” The Sox are nine games off the pace, but they have 14 games remaining with the Yankees. In order to trim the deficit they’ll need to actually win those head-to-head matchups, something they haven’t done so far. Boston is just 1-4 against the Yanks this season, and their first “homestand” against their rivals is across the Atlantic Ocean.
Probable Pitchers
From a numbers standpoint, the Yankees have the edge in pitching. And they’ll send out Masahirio Tanaka for the opener. A solid outing last time got the Yankees a win, though Tanaka didn’t figure in the decision. He surrendered a pair of runs and eight hits across 6.0 innings against Houston. Tanaka had one of the more dominant pitching displays of his career the previous outing, tossing a two-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts against the Rays.
With New York going the opener route on Sunday, it’s up to Tanaka to get a few innings of work. He’s lasted at least six innings in each of his last nine starts. He’s faced the Sox the most of any team in the league going 8-4 with a 4.35 ERA over 107.2 innings of his 18 career starts against them.
Sunday’s game will be a bullpen outing that has worked well for the Yankees this year. They are 7-0 when Chad Green takes the role of opener, most recently a 4-3 triumph over the Toronto on Tuesday in a game Nestor Cortes Jr. went 4.1 innings to get the win.
Rick Porcello and Eduardo Rodriguez are in line to start for Boston. Porcello has been an enigma this season; when he’s good he’s really good and when he’s bad he’s not very good. Unfortunately for Boston they’ve seen more of the latter. He took the loss in his last start. Like Tanaka, Porcello is one start removed from one of his better starts. He tossed 7.0 shutout innings giving up just four hits to help blank the Twins, 2-0.
Rodriguez labored through 6.1 frames in his last start giving up six hits and five runs to the White Sox. He didn’t figure in the decision. He’s allowed seven homers over 26 innings of his last three starts, which isn’t a good sign against a team that has hit at least one dinger in 29 consecutive games entering the series.
Bet Yankees vs. Red Sox at BookMaker.eu
The greatest rivalry in baseball on an international stage makes for prime wagering opportunities, and BookMaker.eu has everything the savvy bettor needs. As they try to make up ground against their heated rival, the Sox won’t even have the advantage of the Fenway faithful to cheer them on. And that’s an edge the Yankees can exploit. Both teams can hit the baseball and the short dimensions at the reconfigured soccer stadium gives the boppers a shot to do some damage. The Yankees are on a roll and I can easily see them taking both contests. However, expect the Sox to come out swinging with both teams scoring runs.
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This article courtsy of Phil Simon, Bookmaker.eu
