Rangers @ Yankees Predictions: Cole to stay red hot

Gerrit Cole rolls into Texas tonight looking very much like the ace that the Yankees are paying him to be. Can he keep it going against the Rangers tonight? Neil Monnery takes a look...

Any time Gerrit Cole (5-1 - 1.37 ERA) steps on to the mound - the Yankees simply expect to win. The $324million pitcher is paid the big bucks but he also has really found his groove in the Bronx. So far this year he has yet to give up more than two earned runs in any start and he struck out double-digit batters in five of his eight starts. That is not too shabby as they say.

Last time out he went eight innings and flat-out dominated the Tampa Bay Rays - allowing just four hits and issuing no free passes of run free ball. He needed to be great that day as the Yankees offense could only cobble together one run of their own, which scored on a sacrifice fly by Aaron Hicks. 

That Yankees offense though has spurted into life in recent days - as they often do when turning up Camden Yards - with Aaron Judge once more reminding every single baseball fan that when he’s healthy and has found his swing - he’s one of the very top bats in the game. Four Home Runs across the three game series in Baltimore has moved him to the top of the HR leaderboard along with Shonei Ohtani. Mitch Haniger and Ronald Acuna Jr. - all of whom have hit 12 long balls this season.

So the Yankees are sending out their ace and their star man has found his power stroke - that might be why they are best priced at -280 to win on the Moneyline tonight.

Texas aren’t sending out anyone on the level of Gerrit Cole with Jordan Lyles (1-3 - 6.63ERA) getting the call. The 30 year-old right hander only has one Quality Start to his name so far in 2021 but has looked slightly better in recent weeks - with back-to-back outings of five innings and giving up three and two runs respectively. Last time out he only gave up two hits but that was compounding with five free passes.

The Rangers’ offense is also scuffling with only one batter hitting above .300. They have averaged just under three runs a game in the past week. One interesting match-up stat of note is Joey Gallo has hit four long balls against Gerrit Cole. So if he makes contact - like against many other pitchers - the ball tends to go a long, long way.

Picks:

I like the Yankees to win tonight and by more than 2.5 runs so get NYY -2.5 on the extended spread.

You can also get the visitors at +118 with Unibet to score more than 5.5 runs, which I think has a great chance of happening.

Aaron Judge is +230 to keep his HR streak alive with BetMGM. I might take a pass on that even though I think it could easily happen. That however seems a short price.