![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/bj-upton-rays.jpg\")
<\/a>New York opened a crucial road trip with a 4-3 series-opening loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Labor Day, as the club\u2019s 10-game lead of the past has shrunk to just a single game.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you win the division, you don\u2019t really care what you win by,\u201d commented Yankees manager Joe Girardi.\u00a0 The Bronx Bombers have made the MLB postseason each of the last 15 times they\u2019ve been in first place at the start of play on Sept. 1.\u00a0 New York is 6-7 as a road underdog of +100 to +125 this season.<\/p>\n
Yankees starting pitcher Freddy Garcia (7-5, 4.90 ERA) has led the club to wins in four of his last five outings, including a no-decision effort in a 4-2 road victory over the Cleveland Indians, allowing two runs and four hits over just 4.2 frames.\u00a0 The right-hander is 3-2 with a 4.56 ERA in 13 road appearances (nine starts), issuing 14 walks and striking out 50 batters in 53.1 combined innings.\u00a0 In 10 lifetime appearances in this ballpark, Garcia has compiled a solid 5-2 record and 3.63 ERA.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay is now just 2.5 games back of its current opponent in the division standings, as the club has won eight of 13 series meetings this year.\u00a0 \u201cWhen we\u2019re playing better teams, I think we\u2019re playing better baseball,\u201d commented Rays manager Joe Maddon.\u00a0 The Rays have done their best work against the Yankees in front of their home fans, winning 10 of their last 11 meetings in the Sunshine State.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is a dismal 4-10 at home with a money line of -100 to -125.<\/p>\n
Rays starting pitcher Alex Cobb (8-8, 4.39 ERA) has watched the team celebrate with a win in his last six outings, but he didn\u2019t earn a decision in an 8-4 road victory over the Texas Rangers, giving up four runs (three earned) and eight hits over 4.2 innings.\u00a0 The right-hander is 4-5 with a 3.44 ERA in nine home outings, as he\u2019s yet to surrender a home run in 52.1 combined frames.\u00a0 Cobb has an 0-1 record and 3.46 ERA in two lifetime starts versus the Yankees.<\/p>\n
Sports bettors will likely back the Rays due to their 6-2 run versus divisional foes, while the Yankees are 1-7 in their last eight against winning teams.<\/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 (76-58) and Tampa Bay Rays (74-61) continue a pivotal American League East series on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:10 ET on ESPN New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays New York opened a crucial road trip with a 4-3 series-opening loss to the Tampa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[4904,2889,1510,149,150,1574],"class_list":["post-24750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-alex-cobb","tag-american-league-east","tag-freddy-garcia","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tropicana-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24750","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=24750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24751,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24750\/revisions\/24751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}