{"id":24741,"date":"2012-09-02T21:10:33","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T02:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=24741"},"modified":"2012-09-02T21:10:33","modified_gmt":"2012-09-03T02:10:33","slug":"mlb-predictions-2012-new-york-yankees-vs-tampa-bay-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-predictions-2012-new-york-yankees-vs-tampa-bay-rays-24741\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Predictions 2012: New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Yankees (76-57) and Tampa Bay Rays (73-61) will open up an important three-game American League East series on Monday afternoon at Tropicana Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Alex Rodriguez is expected to rejoin the New York Yankees in Tampa on Monday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New York has held sole possession of first place in the AL East for nearly three months, but now find themselves in a serious pennant race due to going 2-4 in a stretch of 22 straight games against division rivals.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to play better baseball,\u201d commented Yankees manager Joe Girardi.\u00a0 The Bronx Bombers could receive a major lift with the return of third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who has been on the disabled list with a broken left hand.\u00a0 Second baseman Robinson Cano should also supply some pop, batting .426 in 68 career at-bats against Monday\u2019s opposing starter.\u00a0 New York is 2-9 in its last 11 road games versus winning teams.<\/p>\n

Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia (13-4, 3.40 ERA) suffered an 8-5 home loss to the Toronto Blue Jays last time out, allowing five runs (two earned) and nine hits over seven frames.\u00a0 The left-hander is 7-1 with a 3.97 ERA in 12 road outings, issuing 21 walks and striking out 74 batters in 81.2 innings.\u00a0 In 27 career games versus the Rays, Sabathia has compiled a 10-8 record and 3.09 ERA, but has gone 3-7 with a 3.56 ERA in 16 starts since joining the Bronx Bombers.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay returns home off a disappointing 3-4 road trip, but did capture a 9-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 The Rays offense is ready to roll in a very important series, as it finished with a season-high 18 hits, with each starter getting at least one in the lineup.\u00a0 The club actually outscored the Blue Jays and Rangers by a 28-23 combined margin in those seven contests.<\/p>\n

Rays starting pitcher James Shields (12-8, 3.91 ERA) had his personal four-game win streak snapped in a 1-0 road setback to the Texas Rangers, giving up a single run and three hits over seven frames.\u00a0 The right-hander is 5-4 with a 4.04 ERA in 13 home starts, surrendering nine home runs in 89 combined innings.\u00a0 In 24 career games versus the Yankees, Shields has registered a 6-13 mark and 4.58 ERA.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Rays due to their 4-0 record in Shields\u2019 last four starts in the series, while the Yankees have suffered four losses in Sabathia\u2019s last four efforts at this ballpark.<\/p>\n

Make sure to check out our Major League Baseball picks<\/a> all season long and get the most up-to-date betting odds at Bookmaker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Yankees (76-57) and Tampa Bay Rays (73-61) will open up an important three-game American League East series on Monday afternoon at Tropicana Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays New York has held sole possession of first place in the AL East […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[675,265,86,149,150,1574],"class_list":["post-24741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-alex-rodriguez","tag-cc-sabathia","tag-james-shields","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tropicana-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24741"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24743,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24741\/revisions\/24743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}