NEW YORK YANKEES @ TAMPA BAY RAYS
Baseball : North America : MLB
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011, 7:10PM US
(12:10AM GMT)

---

PREVIEW

Tampa Bay have made quite a ridiculous comeback. The Rays trailed Boston by 9 games in the AL Wild Card race at the start of the month but are now tied top! There are only 2 days left in the regular season so the task is simple. Keep winning, and hope Boston make at least one more slip.

The Tampa Bay Rays send Jeremy Hellickson to the mound against the New York Yankees. The righty is 13-10 with a 2.90ERA and has performed excellently in his rookie season. His current form is hot, surrendering no more than 3 runs in his last 7 starts. He's done that in 15 of his last 16 starts, and 25 of his last 28. Quite ridiculous how consistent he has been for the Rays.

Hellickson is 2-0 in his last 4 starts, allowing just 7 runs in that time! His head-to-head against the Yankees is very good too, going 1-1 with a 3.93ERA this season. He is 1-0 against them at home where he allowed just 2 runs over 7 innings of work.

The New York Yankees might just be weary here as they used a lot of their relief staff last night. The Rays beat them 5-2. Tonight, the Yankees send out Bartolo Colon, who is 8-10 with a 4.02ERA. His numbers are worse than Hellickson and his current is really quite the opposite too.

In his last 2 starts, Colon has allowed 11 runs. He's allowed 4 runs or more in 5 of his last 7 starts, giving him a 6.18ERA in this recent spell. Colon has not won a game since the end of July and brings a 0-3 mark against the Tampa Bay Rays this season, with a 6.60ERA.

TEAM STATS

New York Yankees
Overall 97-63, Streak L2

Tampa Bay Rays
Overall 89-71, Streak W3

BETTING VERDICT

I'm going to have to go with the Rays to continue their excellent run to finish the regular season. With the prices on the win a tad low, I'll chance the RL and recommend betting on them to win by more than 1.

The Pick :

Tampa Bay Rays

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take the Tampa Bay Rays -1.5 @ 2.10 (Pinnacle)