MLB Betting Preview: Yankees and Phillies Deal Aces
There should be plenty of action Tuesday in the Bronx and at the betting window when Roy Halladay and the Phil are underdogs to CC Sabathia and the Yanks.
Baseball's interleague schedule has already produced several possible World Series matchups for later this year. A meeting between the Braves and Twins this past weekend certainly qualifies. Battles in May between the Cardinals and Angels and Red Sox and Phils also fit the bill.
But no regular season interleague meeting has better prospects than the one starting in the Bronx Tuesday night, a rematch between last year's pennant winners from Philadelphia and New York. And what a way to get it started as the top two hurlers from the Phillies and Yankees staffs go head-to-head.
MLB betting odds released Monday afternoon listed New York as the 120-130 home favorite in the clash between Aces Roy Halladay (8-5, 1.96) and C.C. Sabathia (8-5, 4.01). The 7½-run total is the same as Game 1 of the '09 Series when Sabathia met Cliff Lee, Philadelphia's previous ace.
It's the second consecutive season the two teams have met in the regular season, with the May 2009 meeting also at Yankee Stadium. The Phils won two of the three then and New York 170-175 chalk in all three of the contests. All three games went 'under' the closing number which started at 11 ½ in the first game before dropping to 11 and nine in the subsequent contests.
Philadelphia enters the series in the midst of about a month-long slump. Since standing 24-13 after play on May 17, Charlie Manuel's troops have gone 8-16 and won just two series. The primary culprit is the offense that has scored 60 runs in that 24-game span. Philadelphia has scored two or fewer in 13 of the 24 contests, including being blanked six times.
Over in the other dugout, New York is 15-9 over its last 24 games and features the top-scoring lineup in the majors at 5.63 runs per game.
Phillies batters have been especially sluggish with Halladay on the hill. Philly has dropped four of Doc's last six starting assignments while scoring just 11 times in those games.
Halladay's numbers against New York have been superb over his career. In his last 10 goes against the Yankees while pitching for Toronto, the Blue Jays were 7-3. Halladay posted a 2.76 ERA over 75 innings in those starts, with the Jays 3-2 his last five starts in New York.
Sabathia has appeared more often on the road in 2010 than at Yankee Stadium, with this his sixth home start of the campaign compared to eight away from home. New York is 3-2 in his previous five home assignments where Sabathia's ERA is 2.91.
At the same time, Crooked Cap's season needs to be adjusted for the four starts he's made against the pathetic Orioles, nearly a third of Sabathia's season ledger.
He picked up a no-decision in one of New York's regular season losses to the Phils in '09. Philadelphia won the game by a 4-3 count in 11 innings with Sabathia tossing the first eight and allowing three runs. He pitched fine but was on the losing end of the Phils' 6-1 triumph in Game 1 of the Fall Classic. Sabathia gave up two runs in seven frames, both solo shots off the bat of Chase Utley.
Sabathia also no-decisioned in Game 4 of the Series, with Utley again taking him deep. The southpaw worked into the seventh and gave up three runs, all earned. New York ultimately won the contest, 7-4, thanks to a three-run, ninth-inning uprising.
Look for partly cloudy skies and the thermometer in the low-to-mid 70s when the game gets underway. Winds are currently forecast out of the south at 5-10 mph (1B out to LF).
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
There should be plenty of action Tuesday in the Bronx and at the betting window when Roy Halladay and the Phil are underdogs to CC Sabathia and the Yanks.
Baseball's interleague schedule has already produced several possible World Series matchups for later this year. A meeting between the Braves and Twins this past weekend certainly qualifies. Battles in May between the Cardinals and Angels and Red Sox and Phils also fit the bill.
But no regular season interleague meeting has better prospects than the one starting in the Bronx Tuesday night, a rematch between last year's pennant winners from Philadelphia and New York. And what a way to get it started as the top two hurlers from the Phillies and Yankees staffs go head-to-head.
MLB betting odds released Monday afternoon listed New York as the 120-130 home favorite in the clash between Aces Roy Halladay (8-5, 1.96) and C.C. Sabathia (8-5, 4.01). The 7½-run total is the same as Game 1 of the '09 Series when Sabathia met Cliff Lee, Philadelphia's previous ace.
It's the second consecutive season the two teams have met in the regular season, with the May 2009 meeting also at Yankee Stadium. The Phils won two of the three then and New York 170-175 chalk in all three of the contests. All three games went 'under' the closing number which started at 11 ½ in the first game before dropping to 11 and nine in the subsequent contests.
Philadelphia enters the series in the midst of about a month-long slump. Since standing 24-13 after play on May 17, Charlie Manuel's troops have gone 8-16 and won just two series. The primary culprit is the offense that has scored 60 runs in that 24-game span. Philadelphia has scored two or fewer in 13 of the 24 contests, including being blanked six times.
Over in the other dugout, New York is 15-9 over its last 24 games and features the top-scoring lineup in the majors at 5.63 runs per game.
Phillies batters have been especially sluggish with Halladay on the hill. Philly has dropped four of Doc's last six starting assignments while scoring just 11 times in those games.
Halladay's numbers against New York have been superb over his career. In his last 10 goes against the Yankees while pitching for Toronto, the Blue Jays were 7-3. Halladay posted a 2.76 ERA over 75 innings in those starts, with the Jays 3-2 his last five starts in New York.
Sabathia has appeared more often on the road in 2010 than at Yankee Stadium, with this his sixth home start of the campaign compared to eight away from home. New York is 3-2 in his previous five home assignments where Sabathia's ERA is 2.91.
At the same time, Crooked Cap's season needs to be adjusted for the four starts he's made against the pathetic Orioles, nearly a third of Sabathia's season ledger.
He picked up a no-decision in one of New York's regular season losses to the Phils in '09. Philadelphia won the game by a 4-3 count in 11 innings with Sabathia tossing the first eight and allowing three runs. He pitched fine but was on the losing end of the Phils' 6-1 triumph in Game 1 of the Fall Classic. Sabathia gave up two runs in seven frames, both solo shots off the bat of Chase Utley.
Sabathia also no-decisioned in Game 4 of the Series, with Utley again taking him deep. The southpaw worked into the seventh and gave up three runs, all earned. New York ultimately won the contest, 7-4, thanks to a three-run, ninth-inning uprising.
Look for partly cloudy skies and the thermometer in the low-to-mid 70s when the game gets underway. Winds are currently forecast out of the south at 5-10 mph (1B out to LF).
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
