New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays Preview
Where: Tropicana Field – St. Petersburg, Florida
When: Sunday, April 2, 2017, 1:00 PM ET
Line: New York Yankees (-105) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (-105) ; total: 7.0 – view all MLB lines
TV Broadcast: ESPN
Writer’s Pick: New York Yankees (-105)
Betting on the New York Yankees
For the third straight year, Masahiro Tanaka will get the start for the New York Yankees on Opening Day. The Japanese right-hander went 14-4 with a 3.07 ERA in 31 starts for the Yanks last season. Five of those 31 starts came against the Tampa Bay Rays, and he went 4-0 with a 2.88 ERA. The Yankees are a perfect 8-0 in Tanaka’s eight career starts against the Rays. He’s 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA in three career starts at Tropicana Field.
Tanaka will be looking for support from the Yankees’ young bats, Gary Sanchez and Greg Bird, to keep his impressive streak going. Sanchez was one of the revelations of last season, as he launched 20 homers and 42 RBI in just 53 games. Sachez will now take over behind the plate full-time this year after the offseason departure of Brian McCann.
Meanwhile, Bird is set to make his first regular season appearance after missing all of 2016 with shoulder surgery. He certainly looks ready to go based on his spring training stats. The 24-year-old hit .451 (23-for-51) with eight homers in 23 games.
Betting on the Tampa Bay Rays
Chris Archer had a season to forget in 2016. The Tampa Bay ace finished with a 9-19 record to lead the American League in losses, and finished with a 4.02 ERA. However, he did pitch much better at the tail-end of the season, lowering his ERA to 3.11 while striking out 97 batters over 84 innings in his last 13 starts.
Apart from his role in the USA’s World Baseball Classic win, Archer also had a superb spring. He had a 1.98 ERA in his four starts, and allowed only seven hits and four walks.
Archer has a weird history against the Yankees. After winning his first seven career starts against them, he’s now lost six in a row. He went 0-3 with a 3.86 ERA in three starts against the Bombers last season.
But in order to end his poor run against the Yanks, he’ll need some run support from a Rays lineup which finished second-from-bottom in the AL in runs last year.
The Rays went 5-4 against the Yankees at home last season, and 8-11 overall.
Writer’s Prediction
Tanaka tortures the Rays once again as he leads the Yankees to a 4-2 win.
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