Los Angeles Angels (67-40) +145, 9 1/2 at New York Yankees (59-48), 7 pm Eastern Thursday
by Zman of Predictem.com
The Los Angeles Angels, fresh off a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox in Beantown, will hope to carry that momentum into the Big Apple when they open a four-game weekend series with the New York Yankees Thursday night.
Baseball Bookies are listing the Yankees and starting pitcher Andy Pettitte (12-7, 3.76, 1.29 WHIP) as –160 home favorites for Thursday's game, with a total of 9 1/2, while the Angels and Jon Garland (9-6, 4.30, 1.45) are getting +145 as road underdogs.
After their sweep of the Sox at Fenway, the Angels are 10-2 since the All-Star break. Meanwhile, the Yanks broke a three-game losing streak with a 13-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday.
So going into this series, LA owns an 11 1/2-game lead over the second-place Texas Rangers in the AL West, while New York is in third place in the AL East, four games back of the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays.
The Yanks are also only one game back of the first-place Boston Red Sox in the AL wild-card race.
LA is a ML-best 36-19 on the road this year, a sparkling 24-11 as underdogs, and 56-50 vs. the run line.
NY is 34-24 at home this season, 48-35 as favorites, but only 43-62 vs. the run line.
This is the first meeting this season between these two teams. Last year, the Angels took the season series from the Yankees six games to three, with the totals going 6-3, as the games averaged a healthy 12.8 total runs per.
Over his last three starts, including a mediocre outing vs. Baltimore last Saturday, Garland has allowed 14 ER and 30 baserunners (hits + walks) in 14 2/3 IP. The Angels are 12-9 in Garland's starts this year, the totals 7-12.
Garland made three starts vs. the Yankees last year as a member of the Chicago White Sox, giving up 10 ER and 29 BR in 16 2/3 IP. The Sox managed to win all three of those games, and two of them went under their totals.
Over his last three starts, including a winning performance vs. Boston last Saturday, Pettitte has given up six ER and 21 BR in 20 IP. New York is 13-9 in Pettitte's starts this year, the totals a lop-sided 5-17.
Pettitte started two games vs. the Angels last year, allowing nine ER and 18 BR in 12 IP. The Yanks won both of those games, and both went over their totals.
Offensively, LA ranks 13th in the majors this season in team BA at .262, 22nd in team OBP at .322, 22nd in team slugging at .402, and is 4.6 averaging runs per game.
New York ranks 7th in batting at .271, 6th in OBP at .344, 13th in slugging at .419, and is averaging 4.8 RPG.
Over the last five games, the LA bullpen has allowed four ER and 17 BR in 15 1/3 IP.
Over its' last five games, the New York pen has given up 13 ER and 27 BR in 17 IP.
On the personnel front, the Angels added a big bat when they traded for slugger Mark Teixeira earlier this week, while the Yanks filled a hole at catcher when they acquired Pudge Rodriguez yesterday.
The totals are 41-61 in Angels games this year, 41-62 in Yanks games, and 22-32 in games played at Yankee Stadium, which are averaging 9.6 total runs this season.
Zman's Pick: Warning! I've been ice cold the past 3 days. The Angels are rolling. I'm gonna tail them at these big odds until they cool off. Good luck!
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