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The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays square off on Wednesday with first pitch set for 7:10 p.m. EST. The game takes place at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. Jordan Montgomery will get the ball for the Yanks while the home team will toss Shane Baz for his third start of the season.
The Yankees are undoubtedly the best team in baseball, being the first team to hit the 50-win mark and have just 18 losses on the season. Though two of those losses came in the last three games for New York, including last night’s series opener against Tampa Bay. Still, Montgomery, like virtually everybody in pinstripes this season, has found success. He’s pitched at least six innings in each of his last seven appearances and has just one loss on the year. His ERA is just over 2.00 and has allowed just 22 earned runs in over 70 innings tossed. He has yet to pitch against the Rays this season.
The Rays are chasing the Yankees from well behind in the AL East right now. Tampa Bay currently sits in fourth place in the division, 13 games back of the Yanks. Baz is making just his third start of the season and the Yankees will most likely take advantage of that. He’s given up five earned runs in just 8.1 innings pitched, striking out nine batters in that span.
Yankees vs. Rays
Pitchers: Jordan Montgomery vs. Shane Baz
First pitch: 7:10 p.m. EST
Rays local broadcast: Bally Sports SUN
Yankees local broadcast: YES Network
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)
Odds, picks & predictions
Run Line: Yankees -1.5
Run total: 7
Moneyline odds: Yankees -140, Rays +120
Moneyline pick: Yankees
The Yankees are struggling recently, well at least by their very high standards. Still, they get back on track tonight and even the series against Baz, who is a young pitcher who has struggled this season. Putting him up against this dangerous Yankees lineup seems like a recipe for disaster.
Player prop pick: Anthony Rizzo over 0.5 home runs (+350)
Rizzo has 19 bombs on the season, including four in the last six games. In his lone career at-bat against Baz, the former Cub hit a home run. So those are two pretty solid reasons to believe he could hit another long ball tonight.
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