Monday night baseball and we will see the Texas Rangers travel to the East Coast to take on the New York Yankees in game 1 of a big 4 game series. The game is scheduled for a 7.05 (ET) pm start time and it will be televised live on ESPN2. Currently the odds have New York favored at -110, while Detroit is dogs of +100. The total for the game sits at 10 runs.
Free Analysis: The Texas Rangers won the rubber match 8-3 over the Detroit Tigers to set up a big-time clash between American League division leaders on Monday in the Bronx with the New York Yankees, a 10-7 loser earlier Sunday at Toronto Blue Jays. Texas has a half-game lead over New York for best record in the American League, but they have lost their last 5 games played here. The Rangers have rediscovered their offense by scoring 71 runs in 11 August games while going 8-3. Texas tallied just 81 runs in July. Despite his slump for most of July, Josh Hamilton leads the majors with 32 homers and 99 RBIs. Ryan Dempster will be making his third start since being acquired from the Chicago Cubs. He recorded his first Rangers victory in his last start when he didn’t allow an earned run in 6 2/3 innings against the Boston Red Sox. Dempster was rocked for eight runs in 4 2/3 by the Los Angeles Angels in his first start with Texas. He is 0-3 with a 6.45 ERA in four career starts against the Yankees. New York had a four-game winning streak snapped by Toronto on Sunday. The Yankees scored 22 runs while winning two of three from the Blue Jays. Robinson Cano hit his 25th homer of the campaign, making it four straight seasons in which he has 25 or more, while Derek Jeter is batting .375 during an eight-game hitting streak. NY won the first two games in Toronto, but Sunday were overwhelmed early falling behind 10-1 after five. Three-run sixth and seventh innings brought life into the Yanks who first scored during the top of the fifth on Casey McGehee's RBI-double. Derek Jeter had a HR and RBI-double later as well as Robinson Cano homering, Jayson Nix doubling and Nick Swisher singling in runs. David Phelps gets to step in and deal with the powerful Texas lineup, as he will be taking the place of CC Sabathia, who was placed on the disabled list with a sore elbow. Phelps is making his fourth start of the season and first since July 4. He struck out eight and allowed one run and two hits in 4 1/3 against the Tampa Bay Rays in that outing. Phelps has struck out 56 batters in 52 innings on the year and he gave up three runs in 2 1/3 innings of relief against the Rangers earlier this season in his lone career appearance against Texas.
Free Pick: Going with the Rangers in this one. While Demster has bad overall numbers vs the Yanks (0-3, 6.45 ERA) in his career, it must be noted that 3 of those starts were from 2001 or earlier. He did face them once last year, and allowed 3 ER's in 5.2 innings in that start, but he was also a worse pitcher last year. The Yanks had won 4 in a row till last night and their offense is clicking right now, but they are off a lengthy trip and while their offense was hot, their pitching struggled allowing 5.7 rpg on the trip. Now they get to take on a very hot Texas offense that seems to have all of it's parts working right now. Even Hamilton, who is batting .357 with three homers and 15 RBIs during a 10-game hitting streak after hitting under .200 for July. Overall the Rangers have scored 71 runs during this month, compared to 81 runs for the whole month of July. David Phelps has pitched well in his 3 starts this year with a 2.08 ERA, but those 3 starts were vs Tampa Bay (twice) and Kansas City, which are not good offensive teams like the one he will face tonight. Look for Texas to stay ahead of the Yanks in the race for the best record in the AL, by taking game 1 of this very important 4 game set.
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