Frank Lorenzo
New York Yankees (+110) at Los Angeles Angels (-120, 8 o/u)
The New York Yankees (41-35, 20-21 Away) are hoping to end June the same way it began, by piling up runs on the Los Angeles Angels (39-37, 23-17 Home). The Yankees swept the Angels in New York early in the month, scoring 22 runs over the three-game set. But they’ll have to rely on the struggling C.C. Sabathia (3-7, 5.65 ERA) as they head into Angel Stadium tonight (10:05 PM Eastern).
The good news for Sabathia is that one of his three wins on the year came as part of the earlier series with the Angels. But the big lefty has three straight no-decisions since then, though, and was lucky to escape a loss in his last outing, giving up eight hits and six runs over 4.2 innings to the lowly Phillies.
The loss to the Phils has been part of a mediocre stretch for the Pinstripes, who are just 5-5 in their last ten. The team has seen its lead atop the AL East evaporate and now sits a half game back of both Tampa and Baltimore in the uber-tight division.
Tonight, the Yankees will be facing an Angels team that is slowly but surely hunting down the Astros for the AL West lead. Thanks to a 6-4 record over the last ten – including two straight wins over the Mariners – the Halos are now second in the division, four games back of the ‘Stros.
They’ll send C.J. Wilson (5-6, 3.92) to the mound for the opener against the Yanks. Wilson will be looking to rebound from one of his worst outings of the season. The 34-year-old lefty was touched up for eight hits and seven earned against the Astros en route to a 13-3 loss. He was also the pitcher of record when the Sabathia and the Yankees downed the Angels in New York (6-2).
In the trends, three of the last four between Yankees and Angels have hit the over. The only one that didn’t was the Sabathia and Wilson matchup earlier in June. That said, both pitchers have struggled lately and the over looks like the best play.
Pick: OVER.
(Photo credit: User chris.ptacek on Flickr (Originally posted to Flickr as “[1]”) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
