The Daily Sweat: The New York Yankees have come crashing back to Earth
Entering the MLB season, there were some legitimate questions about the New York Yankees. The regular seasons hadn't been as dominant the past few years and the playoff appearances were short and frustrating for their fans. The team really didn't do that much to improve the roster during the offseason. Fans were annoyed that the Yankees had become a team with a budget that relies heavily on analytics, a far cry from the team ran by George Steinbrenner that many grew up with.
Fans quickly shut their mouths. Through the end of June, the Yankees were playing at a 120-win pace. They were on pace to break major league records. It looked like they were going to sleepwalk through the season, face no adversity and break some records in the process. However, baseball has a way of leveling things out over the course of a 162-game season.
On June 29, the Yankees had 56 wins. No other team in baseball had more than 47 wins. Today, the Yankees have 72 wins. That's still the fourth-best record in baseball, but when you take into consideration the lead they built up, it's actually shocking how quickly they've fallen off.
On June 29, the Yankees had an eight-game lead over the Houston Astros for the best record in the AL. Now, the Astros hold a 2.5-game advantage. If the teams were to meet in the playoffs and the season ended now, Houston would have home-field advantage. That's a stadium that has haunted the Yankees in recent years. For the first time since the first few weeks of the season, the Yankees are not the favorites to win the American League at BetMGM. Houston is the betting favorite with +165 odds.
The Dodgers were nine games back of the Yankees in late June for the best record in baseball. Now, the Dodgers have a nine-game lead over the Yankees. That's an 18-game swing over the course of a little over a month and a half. Granted, the Dodgers don't lose, but that's still a shocking swing. Even the Mets have passed their in-city rivals.
A lot has gone wrong for the Yankees over the past few weeks. Names on their injury report currently include Giancarlo Stanton, D.J. LeMahieu, Matt Carpenter, Luis Severino, Michael King, Chad Green and Harrison Bader. Anthony Rizzo just returned after missing a week. Gleyber Torres is batting .157 in August. Clay Holmes, who was unhittable for most of the season, has given up seven runs over four innings in his last five appearances. Outside of MVP favorite Aaron Judge, not a lot has gone right for the Yankees.
If you've bet the Yankees every game over the past month and a half, you'd be down almost 23 units. According to Covers.com, the Yankees have lost bettors money this season, which is simply incomprehensible when you consider their start to the season. The Yankees lost to the Tampa Bay Rays as a -250 favorite on Monday night with Gerrit Cole on the mound. Cole was stellar, giving up just one run over six innings. However, the bats went cold. If the pitching is good, the bats aren't. If the bats are hitting, the pitchers are getting hit. Nothing is going right for the Yankees lately.
Despite all of this, the Yankees are significant favorites again on Tuesday night when they host the Rays. With Nestor Cortes on the mound, the Yankees are -165 favorites against Jeffrey Springs and the Rays. Springs has been really good this season, and over the past few years the Yankees have had issues with the Rays. You'd have to be a real glutton for punishment to lay this kind of juice with the Yankees on Tuesday.
What else is on the MLB schedule?
It's a full 15-game slate for baseball fans on Tuesday night. The most intriguing series comes in the NL East where the Atlanta Braves look to close the gap against the New York Mets. The Braves won on Monday night by a score of 13-1 to cut the Mets' lead in the NL East to just 4.5 games. Every Braves starter had at least one hit, Mets' starter Carlos Carrasco left with an injury after just two innings and the Braves feasted. The Mets have been good at bouncing back after losses this season and they're an appealing bet as a +125 underdog with Taijuan Walker on the mound. The sense of urgency for Atlanta should be high though, as Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom close out the series for the Mets on Wednesday and Thursday. Atlanta has won seven straight games.
Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Dodgers are an underdog for just the third time this season when they send Ryan Pepoit to the mound against Brandon Woodruff. Milwaukee is a -130 favorite. Pepoit has made just five starts this season. He's been fine, but got tagged a bit in his last start, giving up four runs over 4.1 innings to the Twins. The Dodgers are 33-6 since July 1 and just recently had a 12-game winning streak snapped. Most people will run, not walk, to bet them at plus money. Tonight is one of the rare times this season you'll have the chance to do that.
Anything else to bet on?
We're entering the final few weeks of the calendar where baseball dominates.
There are three Champions League games and one MLS game on Tuesday. The Champions League features some uninspiring matchups with FC Copenhagen, FK Bodo/Glimt and Rangers all slight plus-money favorites.
Of course, now is the perfect time to gear up for the college football and NFL seasons. We're just a few weeks away from having the beautiful sport of football back in our lives.
