Yankees vs. Rays Prediction: Best Bets for ALDS Game 2

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays meet for Game 2 of their best-of-five American League Division Series. First pitch is tentatively scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, and the game can be viewed or streamed on TBS and truTV.

In Saturday’s series opener, Tampa’s Drew Rasmussen and New York’s Gerrit Cole put on a pitching clinic, which is exactly what you want to see with playoff baseball. In fact, Rasmussen took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before Austin Wells finally broke through for a double and a threat.

After rolling through the Boston Red Sox in two games in the AL Wild Card Series, the Yankees finally missed Aaron Judge badly. He has been out since mid-September due to a calf injury, although the way Rasmussen was dealing in Game 1, even Judge might not have made a difference.

Jonathan Aranda etched himself into Rays playoff baseball history with a solo shot in Game 1 off of Cole in the bottom of the third inning. However, that’s all that the Yankees pitching would allow. Cole was lifted after 82 pitches and five innings, while the bullpen worked three scoreless frames with two walks allowed.

Rasmussen struck out 10 batters in eight scoreless innings in a 101-pitch quality start, looking like Yankees RHP Cam Schlittler.

Schlittler takes the ball for Game 2, and he was 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA and 0.92 WHIP during the regular season, while going 8-2 with a ridiculous 1.16 ERA on the road in 109 IP across 17 starts. Teams hit just .153 against Schlittler in those starts during the regular season. He was 1-1 with a 2.81 ERA across 16 IP in three starts against the Rays.

Schlittler was on point in the wild-card round against Boston, allowing just two hits and a walk in 6.1 IP with 10 strikeouts. He just seems to save his best for the postseason.

The Rays counter with Freddy Peralta, who was just 10-11 with a 4.42 ERA and 1.33 WHIP across 32 regular-season starts. He was much better in 10 starts with the Rays since coming over from the struggling New York Mets at the non-waiver trade deadline. Peralta faced the Yankees as a member of the Mets, allowing three runs, in a 7-6 home win in 10 innings on May 17.

The Yankees are a strong bet to gain the road split before heading back to the Bronx, especially with Schlittler on the bump. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say if the Yankees blow it with their ace on the mound, they might end up getting broomed in this series. Back YANKEES (-126) as slight favorites, as the pitching scales are tipped heavily in their favor. And, after a 1-0 game in the series opener, we might get a few more runs, but UNDER 6.5 (-106) is still the play.