American League Baseball Betting for July 15, 2016
One of the longest and more barren sports betting weeks of the year has come to an end and now Major League Baseball will get back to work for the second half of their season. A full card in the American League on Friday with 7 games on the board and the Texas Rangers facing the Chicago Cubs in Interleague play:
AMERICAN LEAGUE BASEBALL BETTING FOR JULY 15, 2016:
BOSTON RED SOX AT NEW YORK YANKEES:
Arguably the best rivalry in all of sports is renewed again as the Red Sox and Yankees play a three game series at Yankee Stadium. The always hypercritical New York fan base and media has little confidence in this team and to be sure they look decidedly mediocre. They’re not good enough to be in the ‘lead pack’ with Baltimore, Tampa Bay and first place Baltimore. They’re 6 games back of Toronto and Boston and 8 games back of Baltimore. They’re not terrible like last place Tampa Bay who are 10 games behind the Yankees and arguably the worst team in baseball at the moment.
Manager Joe Girardi is trying to light a fire under his team suggesting they’re in ‘playoff mode’ right out of the gate: “We’re in playoff mode now. It’s not, ‘We can wait another month.’ We can’t. We have to win. … This is playoff mode now.” The reason for the urgency is more internal than external–the prevailing wisdom of the ‘suits’ that handle baseball operations led by GM Brian Cashman is that the Yankees should be ‘selling’ at the trade deadline and divest the team of veteran assets to build for the future. The ‘business operations’ side of things led by owner Hal Steinbrenner and team president Randy Levine think the team is still in contention and should be ‘buying’ at the deadline. Obviously, it’s not a financial issue but from an objective standpoint it’s hard not to agree with Cashman et. al. The Yankees still have a core of talent but it’s aging talent. Teams that try to play the game that Steinbrenner et. al want to play have a tendency to get real old real fast.
Boston has put up good numbers against right handed starters this year going 42-27 +6.6 units. New York starter Michael Pineda hasn’t been bad but his numbers pale in comparison to right hander Steven Wright’s (not to be confused with the deadpan standup comic) who has a 1.88 ERA in 8 road starts this year. He’s coming off a couple of bad losses allowing 9 ER in 11 innings of work in his last two games but in both cases he was bailed out by the Red Sox bats and Boston went on to win. Wright has owned the Yankees in three career starts against them. The Sox are 2-1 in those games but they’ve won the last two (one in August 2015 and one in May 2016). In those two games–both at Yankee Stadium–Wright pitched 17 innings allowing one earned run in each game and striking out 16.
BET BOSTON RED SOX +135 OVER NEW YORK YANKEES
BALTIMORE ORIOLES AT TAMPA BAY RAYS:
The first question you have to ask is ‘why is Tampa Bay favored?’ In theory they have a pitching matchup advantage, at least statistically. Chris Archer has pitched reasonably well in his 9 home starts putting up a 2.70 ERA and a 1.182 WHIP. Unfortunately, the bottom line is winning and losing and when Archer pitches the Rays have done a lot of losing and not so much winning. Tampa Bay has lost 14 of Archer’s 19 starts overall and 7 of 9 in the ‘Cigar City’. They’ve also lost his last three starts. Baltimore’s Yovani Gallardo has been very unimpressive this season but he is coming off a very good start against the LA Angels where he went 5 innings allowing just 2 earned runs. Tampa Bay has been horrible at home with a record of 18-28 -16 units and are 23-43 -25.6 units against right handers this year. Baltimore is feeling some pressure atop the AL East and need to keep winning. Tampa Bay is a dumpster fire having lost 6 straight and 9 of 10. Their run of misery is now at 22 losses in their last 25 games.
BET BALTIMORE ORIOLES +120 OVER TAMPA BAY RAYS