MLB Baseball Free Pick – Rangers vs Yankees – ALCS Game 3
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Texas Rangers vs. New York Yankees
Monday October 18th 8:00 PM EST on TBS
FREE Expert MLB Picks
Texas: Cliff Lee 2-0, 1.13 ERA
New York: Andy Petit 1-0, 2.57 ERA
The Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees will square off on Monday with the series all knotted up at one game apiece.
Saturday saw the Rangers take a few chances to try to keep up with the Yanks, including a double steal in the first inning that paid off, leading the way to a 7-2 victory. At the front of that double steal attempt was Elvis Andrus, who swiped home to set the pace from the first inning on. The win broke a 10 game losing streak by Texas against New York in the postseason.
Cliff Lee will take the mound for Texas in Game 3, and so far this post season, he has sparkled and been all the Rangers hoped for with a 2-0 record in 16 innings of work. He has surrendered 11 hits while striking out 21 to boot. Having Lee start game three looked liked a disadvantage to begin the series, naysayers worried that CJ Wilson and Colby Lewis wouldn’t be enough in critical games against the Yankees, now it’s looking like a strategic advantage with Lee able to provide a swing in Texas’ favor.
Meanwhile, the Rangers hitting had stumbled at times in past postseason appearances and knew it was time to find a spark. The power has been there, but the timely hits have not. Texas has 25 extra base hits in the postseason, including six on Saturday. The difference maker on offense was the aggressiveness as Texas stole four bases Saturday and now has 11 in this year’s postseason play. With leadoff man Andrus’ little threat to drive the ball, he needs to keep pitchers worried on the base paths, and he finally did that and it paid off huge dividends as Phil Hughes struggled to the tune of seven runs in four plus innings.
Taking the mound for New York will be Andy Pettitte who in his one postseason start against Minnesota pitched well, and comforted the nerves of many New York fans who worried how much he had left in the tank. In seven innings of work, he allowed five hits and two runs, while striking out four. For his career, Pettitte has pitched 21 postseason starts and 129 innings with an 11-3 record. Beating him is no small challenge, but Lee is a capable challenger.
New York’s offense struggled Saturday, as the 3-4-5 punch of Teixeira, Rodriguez, and Cano lacked any clout, leaving 12 stranded and combining for 3-14 with a single RBI. That damage was all by Cano, the AL MVP candidate.
New York struck out ten times as well, lead by team captain Derek Jeter with three.
Despite its power, this lineup does have holes in its swing, and since its always looking for the homerun, a pitcher like Lee should be capable of exploiting that aggressiveness with his off speed stuff. You just can’t leave anything over the middle. Good pitchers can beat New York, but they can look foolish as well. The lineup left 22 on base for the game in 33 at bats- opportunity knocked, and they didn’t answer.
The odds makers have the Rangers as a -1.5 point favorite with an over/under run total of 7.5.
Matt’s Prediction: Look for Texas to take the lead, this will be a pitchers duel beyond a doubt, but Lee is on fire and has something to prove with Texas. This one will likely come down to some late inning heroics off the bench. I nominate Jorge Cantu; it’s time for him to make some noise with an RBI late in the game to back a complete game from Lee.
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Good call with Lee and the Rangers. Lee is as good as it gets when facing the Yankees. He will be chased heavily by the Yankees in the off season and not sure any other team, perhaps the Red Sox, that can afford his services.