Rays Yankees Betting – Rays Will Be In Tough To Close Gap For Division Lead

Once again despite the turnover the Tampa Bay Rays have managed to stay in the race for the American League East title under manager Joe Maddon. With a three-game set against the division-leading New York Yankees to close out this week the Rays are looking to close that gap between themselves and first place even further as the midway mark in the MLB betting season approaches, and if they are going to get it done they will need their starters to bring their best against one of the highest scoring offenses in the majors.

Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees

Thursday, 7:05 PM ET

The Rays will open the series with their two All Star pitchers buried in the rotation, which leaves Joe Niemann to open the three-game set against Bartolo Colon for New York. Niemann has struggled with consistency this season and is 3-4 with a 5.05 ERA, but looked good in his last start when he allowed just one run in a 5-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. At the beginning of the year a pitching matchup against Colon may have been in his favor but not after the way that the Yankees’ starter has performed this season. Colon is 6-3 with a 2.88 ERA, and has not allowed an earned run in three of his past four sports betting starts.

MLB Betting Pick: New York Yankees

Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees

Friday, 7:05 PM ET

After providing young Jeremy Hellickson with just one run of support in four starts, the Rays’ offense came alive in his last outing against the St. Louis Cardinals, lighting it up with eight runs to give him his first win in five starts. The 24-year old hasn’t been awful, but he hasn’t been outstanding either and that is what you need to be against a team as powerful as the Yankees. New York will counter with Freddy Garcia as they continue to entertain the idea of running with a six-man rotation for the second half of the season. Garcia’s strong play is one of the biggest reasons why the Yankees have so many capable arms in a season when pitching was supposed to be a weakness.

MLB Betting Pick: New York Yankees

Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees

Saturday, 1:05 PM ET

By the time that the Rays get one of their All Star arms on the mound they will have already conceded the first two games of the series, but that will make it more important to salvage the finale. Tampa Bay will turn to David Price hoping that he can deliver a Cy Young-caliber performance, and he will need to respond by doing better than he did in a 4-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins in which he gave up all four runs. AJ Burnett’s bounce back season has been another big surprise for the Yankees, but he still need to be more consistent in order to win back the support of sports betting bonus fans in New York.