7th Sept - Yankees vs Orioles

The Yankees have won eight of their last 10, but they’ve struggled to catch the Toronto Blue Jays after relinquishing the AL East lead. Still, there are reasons for the franchise to be positive, there were questions about this team’s hitting, but the performance of veterans Alex Rodriguez and Brian McCann has been of huge benefit. In particular, McCann could set a new career high in terms of RBIs, he’s on 86 at the moment and could easily finish on more than 100 for the first time in his career.

Michael Pineda will make his third start since spending an extended spell on the D/L. He didn’t make it through the fifth inning in his first start back against Houston, but was more than good in limiting the Boston Red Sox to just one run in six innings last Tuesday.

The Orioles have just two wins in their last 10 games and have been on a month long slide that has seen them slip away from being a potential favourite to reach the postseason to being 15 games back from the AL East lead and all but mathematically out of the Wildcard race.

It seems like any Baltimore player in good form has inevitably dropped out of it in recent weeks. Pitcher Wei-Yin Chen was one recent example. He allowed five runs in less than five innings in Monday’s loss to the Tampa Bay and lacked control after going 3-0 with a 2.90 ERA in his previous five outings. He’s had a pretty good time against New York this season, but it’s going to be a tough matchup against this squad tonight.

Three Reasons for Betting Tips

1. Yankees’ hitting form

This is a good lineup and they are striking the ball well. It’s a tough ask of a pitcher to get through this hitting two or three times in a game. They’ve been determined and they’ve played well with the playoffs in sight, we expect them to score lots of runs against this Orioles team and Chen on Monday evening.

2. Orioles’ mental state

It just doesn’t look right in Baltimore. Manager Buck Showalter’s team have wilted under the pressure of a number of factors. They look like a team that has given up the ghost a little bit.

3. Pineda looking good

After a poor first outing back from injury, Pineda looked to be back in the swing of things against an in-form Red Sox line-up on Tuesday. We like another strong outing to lead a Yankees’ win here.