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The good news is that the first place Boston Red Sox finish out their season with four games against the Houston Astros — who are still vying for home field advantage in the postseason. The bad news is Houston is 1-6 in their last seven games at Fenway. Boston’s magic number is 2, while New York’s tragic number is also 2. The difference is still 3 games in the standings but there’s little sense in getting excited about anything until it’s down to one game. Then it gets real interesting.
So for now we’ll focus on the Yankees taking care of business in their attempt to run the table over the season’s four remaining games. And that begins tonight with the season series finale against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Thursday, September 28, 2017 vs Tampa Bay Rays
Key Stats At-A-Glance
Money Line : Rays +177, Yankees -188
Over/Under : 8.5
Line Moves : Late scratch coming in on New York
Park Factors : Yankee Stadium is considered a hitter’s park.
Weather : 70°, sunny, Wind NNW 15MPH, 0% chance of rain.
Trends
- The Yankees are 12-6 versus Tampa in 2017.
- The Rays are 1-8 over their last nine games at Yankee Stadium.
- Tampa is 28-31 (.475) as a road underdog.
- The Yankees are 49-28 at home (.636), third best in MLB.
Jake Faria vs The Yankees
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Jake Faria ($6,600) is 5-4 with a 3.33 ERA and 1.15 WHIP over 13 starts in 2017, his rookie season. His only outing against New York came on July 20th at Yankee Stadium when he struck out 8 over four innings, while allowing three earned runs — which included a 2-run homer by Ronald Torreyes. Faria did not factor in the decision of Tampa’s 5-3 victory.
The right-handed Faria relies mainly on his 92MPH four-seam fastball, in addition to a slider and changeup, both in the mid-to-low 80s. In his 4-inning stint against the Yankees, he allowed only three hits while facing 17 batters. He has had two appearances so far in September, both in relief.
Faria has much better success against left-handed batters (.163 BA) than righties (.245). Look for some swings early in at-bats from the Yankees tonight, as Faria tends to try to get ahead in the count.
He gets tonight’s start in place of Alex Cobb, who was shut down for the remainder of the season by Tampa, citing the amount of innings pitched (179). Cobb had Tommy John surgery in 2015, and some complications afterward during his return in 2016.
Here’s who to consider in today’s lineup.
- Aaron Judge ($5,700) : Judge is having an outstanding month of September, hitting .313 with 13 home runs, 29 RBI and 26 runs scored. No reason to think that won’t continue this evening. His price remains at $5,700, but worth it.
- Starlin Castro ($3,800) : Castro has crushed home runs in back to back games and appears to have finally snapped out of his recent funk.
- Gary Sanchez ($4,900) : The Kracken is also killing’ it in September with a .317 BA, 26 hits including 5 home runs and 13 RBI.
Sonny Gray vs The Tampa Bay Rays
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Sonny Gray ($11,700) : In what will be Gray’s final start of the 2017 regular season, he’ll face a lineup he dominated — with one exception — two weeks ago at Citi Field. Gray once again received no help from the offense and took a 2-1 loss by virtue of Adeiny Hechavarria’s 8th inning home run that broke a 1-1 tie.
Gray has had an up and down September, going 2-3 (3.52 ERA) in five starts while allowing seven home runs and recording 31 strikeouts over 30.1 innings. But again the bats failed him for the most part as the Yankees scored a total of 6 runs in his three September losses.
Here’s who Gray needs to be careful with in the Rays lineup:
- Adeiny Hechavarria ($2,800) : If this keeps up we’ll have to add ‘Yankee Killer’ to his short resume. Starting tonight at shortstop, Hechavarria owns a .333 BA with 11 hits including 2 home runs, a double and a triple against New York pitching. Priced at $2,800, he could be the stealth pick in your lineup.
- Kevin Kiermaier ($3,800) : Tampa’s stud centerfield has 4 hits in 16 ABS against Gray, but two have gone yard. He’s picking it in September and could be a reasonably priced option for an outfielder.
Upon completion of today’s game the Bronx Bombers will close the regular season out against the Toronto Blue Jays at The Stadium with a three game set. Tomorrow’s game is a 1:05pm EST start time.
THE FINE PRINT : The fantasy lineup suggestions are purely speculation and should not be taken as gospel. Anything can and will happen in a baseball game, but this content is designed to provide a starting point for your lineup research. Best of luck, and let’s go Yankees!