Moneyline pick, best player prop for Yankees vs. Rays on Tuesday

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays will start a key divisional battle on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field. The Yankees will enter with an 18-16 record, and the Rays are 19-17. Both teams trail the Boston Red Sox by three games for the top spot in the American League East. The Yankees have been on a roll recently, winning seven of their last nine games. The Rays had a five-game winning streak going before dropping two of three to the Oakland Athletics over the weekend.

Tampa Bay will start 21-year-old righty Luis Patino, who has appeared in three games this season with one start. In 7.2 innings of work this season, he has allowed one run on three hits and one walk with 10 strikeouts. The Yankees will start lefthander Jordan Montgomery, who is 1-1 with a 4.41 ERA in six starts.

Yankees vs. Rays, 7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN

Moneyline pick: Yankees -132

Patino has never thrown more than three innings in his MLB career, so it’s certainly possible this will be a bullpen game for the Rays. Despite playing two less games than the Rays this season, the Yankees have 10 more home runs on the season than Tampa Bay does. Giancarlo Stanton had a walk-off hit on Sunday and is off to a good start for New York, which is worth the price at -132 to come away with a win in Game 1 of the series.

Player Prop: Jordan Montgomery over 6.5 strikeouts (+125)

This is a risky player prop but since we do not have anything for Tampa Bay’s starter, we are going to look at Montgomery’s strikeout prop. The 28-year-old has a record of 1-1 with an ERA of 4.41 through six starts this season. The Yankees starter has gone over 6.5 Ks twice this season, which includes a start against the Tampa Bay Rays on Apr. 17.

The first time he went up against the Rays, Montgomery he had four strikeouts in 5.0 IP on Apr. 11. In eight starts vs. Tampa Bay, he’s 1-3 with an ERA of 5.38 and K/9 of 10.4. Also, the Rays’ offense is one of the worst, averaging 10.4 strikeouts per game and 11 Ks in their last three games.

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