Last weekend, the Yankees and Rays played four straight Unders at The Stadium, continuing lengthy low-scoring trends for both teams.
The Yankees finally ended a string of 14 straight Unders on Wednesday night versus Seattle, before the teams went back Under (7¹/₂) on Thursday afternoon with a 4-3 Yankees victory. Tampa Bay continued playing Unders in Houston, and is now 9-21 to the Under its past 30 games.
Will we see more of the same in the return engagement that begins Friday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.? Very possibly. Tropicana Field has been one of the top pitchers’ parks in baseball this season, reducing offense by 8 percent (and home runs by 22 percent) entering the series.
Last weekend, Yankees-Rays scoring sums landed on 7, 5, 5 and 4, well below market totals of 8.5, 9, 8, and 9.5. Now the teams are moving to a tougher scoring park.
That said, the teakettle finally burst for the Yankees’ offense against the Mariners. They scored 7, 7 and 4 runs this week. In betting terms, that brought “Yankees and Over” combos closer to “Yankees and Under,” even with that two-week stretch of low-scoring games included.
2018 Pinstripe Combos
- Yanks and Under: 26 times
- Yanks and Over: 23 times
- Opponent and Under: 11 times
- Opponent and Over: 10 times (There was one win-push and one loss-push, leading to the Yankees’ 50-22 mark in the standings.)
Bettors will have to decide if the Yankees’ surge versus Seattle is a sign of more scoring to come, or if this particular head-to-head matchup still favors the Under in such a great pitching environment. Those betting “the due theory” for scoring in Yankees-Rays games last weekend sure regretted it!
