Posted on
5/16/2008 6:13:20 PM
MLB Baseball Betting – N.Y. Mets at N.Y. Yankees
By Charles Jay
It's possible that this intra-city rivalry isn't as contentious as that spawned by the triumvirate of teams who occupied the Big Apple in the past (the Dodgers and Giants used to be there, kids), but whenever the New York Mets and New York Yankees get together, it's bound to start a few arguments. These two will face each other in an online betting interleague game that is set to begin at 1:05 PM ET on Saturday at Yankee Stadium in what has been called "the most beautiful borough in the world," the Bronx.
Left-handers will occupy the rubber on Saturday afternoon, as Oliver Perez (3-3, 4.61 ERA) of the Mets goes up against Andy Pettitte (3-4, 4.40 ERA) of the Yankees.
Here are some of the MLB Baseball sports betting trends as they relate to this matchup:
* METS have lost four of their last six games
* METS have played six of their last nine games OVER the total
* METS have lost seven of their last 11 road games
* YANKS have lost six of their last nine games
* YANKS have played eight of their last nine games UNDER the total
* YANKS have won four of their last six home games
* YANKS have played five of their last six home games UNDER the total
In the HEAD-TO-HEAD baseball betting trends:
* YANKS have won three of the last four meetings
* Five of the last eight meetings have gone OVER the total
* YANKS have won four of the last six meetings as the home team
Prior to Friday's game, the Yankees had scored eight runs or more in four of their previous seven meetings with the crosstown Mets. Of course, with offensive weapons like Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada on the shelf, offense is a rare commodity with the guys in pinstripes these days. Still, there is no excuse for a team that has run-producers like Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui available to it. The Yanks scored two runs in 27 innings against the members of Tampa Bay's starting rotation they had faced in the four-game series earlier in the week.
According to first-year manager Joe Girardi, "You expect to score a lot of runs with this offense. It has not happened on a consistent basis. We need to, all of us, figure it out." Indeed. You'd hate to see Girardi, who did one of the great managing jobs in recent years two years ago in Florida before getting bounced out due to personality conflicts, getting an early hook.
Saturday's pitcher, Andy Pettitte, gave up five earned runs in four innings in the second game of that series in St. Petersburg. Pettitte had won eight of his previous nine decisions at Tropicana Field, but past history was of no help to him as Rays' newbies like Evan Longoria started batting around against him. Pettitte has now gone without a victory in his last four starts.
In his last start, Oliver Perez won his first game since April 19, giving up three runs in six innings to Cincinnati. That was improvement on his previous outing, when he surrendered three homers to the L.A. (don't call them Brooklyn) Dodgers. Perez faced the Yankees twice last season, and gave up just two runs and 10 hits in 15 innings of work. Obviously he got his game up for this opponent.
Until the Yankees show us that they have conquered their offensive woes, we will go against them in situations like this. We're taking the visiting Mets in BetUS Major League Baseball betting for Saturday.
JAY'S PLAY: N.Y. METS
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(Charles Jay of http://www.eBookies.com touches all the bases as a regular contributor to the BetUS Locker Room)