Take New York Yankees (-139) on the ML against Minnesota Twins risking 4.17% to win 3%.
The New York Yankees dropped Game 1 of their series with the Minnesota Twins last night, 4-2, however, we believe they will have the advantage tonight in Game 2 and should be primed for a bounce back performance.
Bartolo Colon will be making his first start in a Twins uniform tonight and while his clothing may have changed, we don't expect it to have much effect on the way he has been performing. Colon has struggled this season and it appears that age have finally caught up with the veteran. Colon is just 2-8 and the season and has an extremely unflattering 8.14 ERA and 1.778 WHIP in just 63 innings of work! His last 3 starts have been extremely painful as he has last just an average of 3.3 innings while giving up 22 hits and 23 runs and has inflated his ERA to 14.40 with a WHIP of 2.800 over his last 10 innings! What is most alarming about his statistics is the fact that these outing have come against three of the worst offensive teams in the league in San Diego, Philadelphia, and the LA Angels!
While he struggled against some of the below average hitting teams in the league, tonight he'll have to contend with the potent Yankees lineup. New York is scoring an average of 5.42 runs per game this season (3rd in the league) and batting a collective .262 as a team. This season, Colon is allowing teams to hit .338 against him and if poor offensive teams like the aforementioned were able to find success, the Yankees should be able to do quite a bit of damage to the veteran in this contest. While sporting a different uniform could come as a welcome change of pace, we don't believe it will immediately allow Colon to right the ship.
While Yankees Luis Cessa hasn't been spectacular in the role of a starter this season, he has put together some rather impressive out outings in relief recently. In his last 3 appearances, he has given up just 2 runs in his last 11.1 innings of work. Most of the Twins lineup has limited experience against Cessa and that should give the youngster an advantage on the mound in the early going.
The Yankees have been struggling as of late, but we believe this is the ideal matchup for them to get back on the winning track. Colon has struggled against the Bronx Bombers in his career and we don't expect tonight's matchup to be any different. The Yankees should be able to generate enough offense off Colon to even up the series and come away with a convincing victory.