Opening Moneyline: NYY -205, CWS +175

Current Moneyline: NYY -200, CWS +185

Opening total: 9

Current total: 9

The Yankees will have a chance to split the series today with a victory. They won last night by a count of 3-1 and they’ll be sending their ace C.C. Sabathia to the mound tonight. Wednesday night Bartolo Colon gave up only 1 run over 8 innings. The White Sox havce been poor offensivcely and it will be difficult to get things going against Sabathia, whose ERA is 2.73. Last time out, Sabathia gave up 3 runs in 8 innings work as the Yankees won 15-3 over Baltimore.

All that, despite being quite under the weather, according to Yankees manage Joe Girardi. “Maybe that extra day did help him,” manager Joe Girardi said. “I saw him (Friday) and he looked OK, but you know he had a low-grade fever and wasn’t feeling great.”

Sabathia has been excellent against the White Sox throughout his career. He has recorded a 16-4 record wit ha 3.82 ERA against the White Sox. Worthy to note, however, is that since coming to the Yankees, his numbers against the Sox have plummeted to 2-0 with a 5.14 ERA over three games pitched.

Despite only scoring 6 runs over the past 3 games, the Yankees did manage to win one of them. Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher, and Alex Rodriguez have struggled mightly at the plate and are hitting a combined 3 for 29 in this series. In line with this, the White Sox starters’ ERA over the series is 2.05, with all performing quality starts (at least 7 innings, < 3 ER).

The Sox send Edwin Jackson to the mound. Jackson is 2-2 with a 4.88 ERA and has lost his last two decisions. He gave up 8 runs over 5 2/3rds innings in a shutout loss to Detroit.

Catcher A.J. Pierzynski commented on the outing, saying “Jax just didn’t have a slider at all,” not a good thing when that is his most effective pitch. If he can’t regain for today, expect the Yankees to batter him for a lot of hits and runs, as he hasn’t been that effective this year.

Some betting trends:

The Chicago White Sox are 3-11 SU in their last 14 games and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 5 games. The total has also gone UNDER in 4 of the White Sox’s last 5 games on the road. The White Sox are 3-7 SU in their last 10 games on the road and the White Sox are 4-9 SU in their last 13 games against the Yankees. The total has gone UNDER in 4 of the White Sox’s last 5 games when playing the Yankees and the Sox are 5-14 SU in their last 19 on the road at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees are 4-2 SU in their last 6 games and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of the Yankees;’ last 6 games. The total has also gone UNDER in 5 of the Yankees’ last 6 games at home and the Yankees are 6-3 SU in their last 9 games at home. The Yankees are 9-4 SU in their last 13 games against the Chicago White Sox and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of the Yankees’ last 5 games against the White Sox. The Yankees are 14-5 SU in their last 19 home games against the Chicago White Sox.

Given Sabathia’s success against the Sox over his career (the “struggles” with the Yankees not with standing), it seems pretty plausible that the Yankees could win in a rout. They aren’t hitting well, but with Sabathia at the mound, they may not need to.