The best team in baseball hosts one of the worst teams in baseball on Tuesday when the New York Yankees begin a series against the Cincinnati Reds. At home, the Yankees are massive favorites with a moneyline of -310 compared to Cincinnati’s moneyline of +250. The game also has an over/under of eight runs.
Despite being last in the NL Central, the Reds head to the Bronx riding a four-game winning streak. Cincinnati swept the Rays this past weekend and has won six of its last nine games. Of course, the Reds are still 22 games under .500 and miles from contention.
Meanwhile, the Yankees need a win on Tuesday to avoid a three-game losing streak. The Bronx Bombers split a four-game series with the Red Sox over the weekend but lost the last two games. Despite that small setback and a 5-5 record in the team’s last ten games, the Yankees still hold a 14.5-game atop the AL East.
Cole Fusion
Gerrit Cole will get the ball on Tuesday with the hope of preventing a three-game losing streak. In 17 starts this season, Cole is 8-2 with a 3.26 ERA and an impressive 1.03 WHIP. The only caveat is that Cole has allowed five home runs over his last three starts, although the Yankees have won six of his last seven starts since the start of June.
Of course, Cole should be able to expect a fair amount of run support on Tuesday. The Yankees are averaging nine runs per game over their last five games, scoring a minimum of five runs in each of those games.
While Aaron Judge has received most of the credit this season with his 30 homers, Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton both have over 20 homers this year, while Gleyber Torres and Matt Carpenter have been red-hot lately.
Turn to Ashes
New York’s potent lineup will be opposed by rookie Graham Ashcroft on Tuesday. The hard-throwing righty is 4-2 with a 4.35 ERA over the first nine starts of his career, although his strikeout rate is low despite his high-90s velocity. The Reds have also lost three of his last four starts, with Ashcroft’s ERA going from 2.22 to 4.35 over those four starts.
The silver lining is the Cincinnati offense is starting to come around. The Reds have scored 15 runs over their last two games and are averaging 5.5 runs per game over the team’s recent four-game winning streak.
Brandon Drury continues to have a standout season while Donovan Solano and Nick Senzel are red-hot right now, although the Reds don’t have anywhere near the lineup depth that the Yankees possess.
No-Brainer
There might not be a lot of value in picking the Yankees with their moneyline, but that’s still the safe pick in this game. Ashcroft has given up a ton of hits over his last four starts, so he’s likely to struggle against the Bronx Bombers in such a hitter-friendly stadium. If Cole can give the Yankees anywhere close to his best, the Yankees should cruise to an easy win.
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