Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees | 2012-04-27 | MLB Baseball

MLB Baseball

2012-04-27 - Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Detroit Tigers @ New York Yankees
United States: Major League Baseball
Friday 27 April 2012 - First Pitch 7:05pm ET
12:05am (British Standard Time)

Preview

This is a big American League contest as two teams who met in the post-season in 2011 play a series for the first time in 2012. The New York Yankees (10-8) will be hoping to bounce back from a series loss to the Texas Rangers, while the Detroit Tigers (10-9) were surprisingly swept by the Seattle Mariners at Comerica Park.

Detroit have been struggling at the plate despite boasting one of the most powerful batting line ups in the Major Leagues, and they have now failed to score more than 4 runs in any of their last 10 contests. In fact, they are averaging just 3 runs per game over their last 6 coming into this series.

The Tigers will look to Justin Verlander to at least keep the Yankees scoring down and allow them to pick up the win perhaps without scoring a lot of runs. Verlander is 2-1 with a 1.72 ERA this season and comes into this game having allowed just 4 hits in 6 innings against the Texas Rangers in his last start.

The pitcher beat the Yankees in the post-season last year, although he allowed 4 runs in 8 innings pitched of that game. He has also struggled when coming to the Bronx, going 0-2 from 4 starts here with a 4.26 ERA since getting his only career win in 2007.

New York saw their bats silenced in the last two games against the Texas Rangers, both losses, and they scored just 3 runs in those games including being blanked. However, they had scored at least 5 runs in their previous 6 games and this batting line up will enjoy being back home. The Yankees have scored 40 runs in their 7 home games this season so far.

Ivan Nova will get the ball for New York and will look to extend a special run- he has now won 15 consecutive regular season decisions following a 6-2 win at Boston in his last start. Nova is 3-0 this season with a 3.79 ERA, although he may have to erase some painful memories of his last start against the Tigers.

The rookie had been given the ball in the fifth game of the Divisional series match against the Tigers, but was pulled after two innings when giving up a couple of Home Runs.

While teams have struggled against Verlander this season, Nova will be hoping his batting line up can fire themselves up and give him the same sort of run support he has received so far. The Yankees have aided the pitcher with an average of 6.66 runs per game in his 3 starts this season.

Head to Head

New York are just 2-6 in the last 8 games in the series against Detroit, including the 2-3 loss in the Play Offs last year.

The Yankees are just 1-4 in the last 5 regular season games between the teams.

They have lost 3 of 4 in the Bronx to the Tigers, but those include post-season games... The Yankees are 8-2 at home in the last 10 regular season games between the teams.

Prediction

A bit of a risk to be honest, but I don't think the Yankees should be the underdogs in this game considering they have generally been the hotter bats than the Detroit Tigers in the last couple of weeks.

The fact that Justin Verlander is on the mound suggests New York will have trouble ticking the scoreboard over, but the ace pitcher has struggled in the Bronx and was even tagged for 4 runs the last time he faced this batting line up.

Ivan Nova has been pitching well enough for the Yankees to suggest he can at least keep them competitive in this game, while the bullpen has been surprisingly strong so far for New York.

With the Tigers just a little low in confidence after being swept by Seattle, I think New York could be a lively dog at 2.18.