The Yankees offense is firing on all cylinders and hope to get their star third baseman back into the lineup for the second game of this series.
Philadelphia Phillies at New York Yankees
Philadelphia dropped to 8-17 in its last 25 games after last night’s 8-3 defeat against New York at Yankee Stadium. The offense has put up just 2.6 runs per game over that span, the worst average in all of baseball. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel moved 2B Chase Utley from his No. 3 spot in the lineup to No. 2. “When we’ve got guys that aren’t hitting, that kind of feeds down,” Manuel said. Philadelphia is now a game under .500 on the road this season (16-17, -380), but the club still possesses the best road record among NL clubs since the 2007 season (150-126).
Phillies SP Jamie Moyer is looking to rebound from one of the worst starts of his 24-year career, giving up nine runs and nine hits in a 12-2 loss to Boston last Friday. “I didn’t execute and when I did they hit the ball hard,” Moyer said about the appearance. The left-hander is 10-9 with a 4.78 ERA in 34 starts and two relief appearances against the Yankees (+560), as this will be the first time he’s faced them since 2005 as a member of the Seattle Mariners. He is 3-4 with a 6.69 ERA in seven road starts this season (-120), managing to strike out just 12 batters and issuing 12 walks in 36.1 innings of work.
New York’s offense continued its recent surge in Tuesday night’s victory, as the team has now scored 30 runs over their last four games. This has all been done with three-time MVP Alex Rodriguez out of the lineup with a groin injury. “We want to be smart about this and take a more long-term approach,” Rodriguez said. With their 8-3 victory, the Yankees have won nine straight home games, setting a record for the longest home winning streak in the short history of the current Yankee Stadium. At 138-97, the club is now first all-time in interleague wins and winning percentage. It’s also important to note, New York is an MLB-best 27-5 when scoring first this season.
Yankees SP A.J. Burnett is facing the Phillies for the first time since a forgettable start in Game 5 of the World Series, when he gave up six runs and walked four in two innings of work in a 8-6 loss. The right-hander owns a 15-7 record and 3.02 ERA in 30 career interleague starts, going 7-5 with a 2.98 ERA in 13 starts against the NL since 2006 when he joined the American League. Recently, Burnett has held his opponent scoreless in three of his last five interleague starts. He has lost just once in his last nine starts at Yankee Stadium, going 4-1 with a 2.05 ERA and a .205 opponents average over that stretch.
The Yankees have proven dangerous as a home favorite of -200 to -225, posting a perfect 5-0 record this season (+500). New York is also a dominating 41-26 during June the past three years, but bettors have made the slightest of profit over that span (+10). The linesmaker has placed the Phillies as a road underdog of +175 to +200 for the first time this year, as the team is 0-3 in this type of spot the last three seasons (-300).
