MLB 10* Game of the Month
(MLB) Tampa Bay vs. NY Yankees, 10/08/2020 7:10 PM, Score: 1 - 5
Money Line: 125.00 Tampa Bay (Away)
Result: Loss
ASA TOP PLAY 10* ON Tampa Bay Rays Money Line (+) vs New York Yankees, Thursday at 7:10 PM ET

The Rays were the better road team in the regular season and these games are being played at a neutral location and that certainly favors Tampa Bay. Up 2-1 in this series and having won 2 straight games, Tampa Bay is now looking to punch their ticket to the ALCS with another win Thursday evening. In the regular season, the Rays went 20-11 away from Tampa Bay. As for the Yankees, they went 11-18 away from Yankee Stadium. The Astros are the only other team still in the post-season that had a losing road record in the regular season. We like the Rays to close this one out on Thursday. Tampa Bay is expected to use Ryan Thompson as an opener in this game but Ryan Yarbrough is projected to get the bulk of the work after Thompson makes an early exit. We'll focus on Yarbrough as a result. The southpaw holds a big edge here with the Yankees having not faced him in the regular season! Yarbrough went at least 6 innings in 3 of his last 4 starts so, once he comes in for Thompson, he absolutely can give the Rays plenty of workload in this one. The lefty is 28-16 with a 3.94 ERA in his MLB career and has gone 1-0 and pitched well thus far in post-season action - all in 2019. The Yankees certainly appear to be at a disadvantage on the mound for this one. Jordan Montgomery is projected to get the start here and the left-hander struggled badly on the road this season. He went 0-2 with a 7.27 ERA in his 4 outings away from home. Also, he faced the Rays last month and, even though that start was at home in the Bronx, Montgomery struggled badly with 4 earned runs allowed in a game in which he couldn't even complete 1 inning of work. This will be his post-season debut and it is unlikely to go well as Tampa Bay, known more for their pitching than their hitting, has actually gotten their sticks going and has scored 7 or more runs in 3 of the last 4 games. In terms of the Rays solid pitching, they have allowed an average of only 3 runs per game in their 4 post-season victories. Their lone loss was a 4-3 game before the Yankees exploded in the top of the 9th for 5 runs in Game 1 of this series. That seems like a distant memory now after how TB has played in these last two games and our computer math model predicts a solid underdog win in this one. Bet the Tampa Bay Rays on the money line for a TOP PLAY in early evening action Thursday.