MLB Odds: Yankees' Sabathia Faces Tampa Bay Rays
Friday, August 12, 2011
by Frank Martin
With their postseason hopes already on life support, the Tampa Bay Rays may have their last chance to get back into the American League wild card picture – and they'll have to do it the hard way.
The Rays open a six-game road trip against the two teams sitting above them in the American League East standings when they visit the New York Yankees on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series. Sitting 9 1/2 games back of division-leading Boston and 8 1/2 behind the Yankees, Tampa Bay may have to sweep one – or both – division powers to stay in the playoff chase.
- Tampa Bay Rays (63-54) vs. New York Yankees (71-45)
When: 7:05 PM ET, Friday, August 12, 2011
Where: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York
TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, Sunshine (Tampa), YES (New York)
The Yankees have opened as 190-moneyline favorites on Bet Online Sportsbook’s Live MLB Baseball Odds.
Rays LH David Price (9-10, 3.89 ERA) vs. Yankees LH CC Sabathia (16-6, 2.81).
Price has hardly pitched like an ace, going 0-3 in his last four starts, although the Rays have scored only six runs in that span. He lost twice to the Yankees last month, including a memorable outing for the wrong reasons, when he served up Derek Jeter’s 3,000th career hit via a home run. Jeter is batting .313 (10-for-32) with a pair of homers and Nick Swisher is 8-for-19 with a homer against Price.
Sabathia will be happy to face any opponent not named Boston. He fell to 0-4 against the Red Sox after he was shelled for seven runs in six innings last time out. He’s 16-2 with a 2.11 ERA against all other foes. Sabathia is 9-6 with a 3.00 ERA lifetime against the Rays, although he took a 2-1 loss against them on July 21. The lefty must be wary of Evan Longoria (8-for-24, 3 HRs).
New York padded its major league-leading home run total (155) in taking two of three games from the Los Angeles Angels. The Yankees went deep six times in the series, including four homers by Curtis Granderson and a pair by Robinson Cano. A grand slam by Cano was the difference in Thursday’s 6-5 win. He was 7-for-12 with six RBIs vs. the Angels.
Granderson tied Mark Teixeira for the team lead with 32 homers, one behind major league leader Jose Bautista of Toronto. One worry is closer Mariano Rivera, who coughed up ninth-inning homers in his last two outings following a blown save in Boston.
Tampa Bay arrives in New York with a head of steam after completing a four-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals on Thursday. It was the first four-game sweep at home since 2005 for the Rays, who were a game below .500 at Tropicana Field entering the series. Tampa Bay, winners of 10 its last 14, pulled off a stunning comeback in the third game of the series, rallying for five runs in the ninth to jolt the Royals 8-7. Longoria, who had a key RBI double in the comeback, has three home runs and 11 RBIs during an eight-game hitting streak.
Ex-Yankee Johnny Damon singled Thursday to move into 65th place on the career hits list with 2,684. He is batting .262 in his first season with Tampa Bay.
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cc sabathia - curtis granderson - david price - derek jeter - evan longoria - johnny damon - jose bautista - kansas city royals - los angeles angels - mariano rivera
