Ron's Rundown Saturday MLB Best Bet

I am rolling with the Rays to get a revenge W on Saturday afternoon in the Trop as they check a lot of the important boxes for me. Both starters have pitched well to start 2024 but Cortes' struggles away from home cannot be ignored. Cortes has a much steeper ERA on the road as well as a much higher opponents batting average amongst a higher BB%, lower K rate, and higher HR/9. Cortes already faced the Rays not too long ago while Littell did not pitch in that series so I give the advantage to the Rays hitters there. Add to the fact that Cortes has struggled with giving up sharp contact to RHH a lot more than LHH (which makes sense since Cortes is a lefty himself) and the Rays stack their lineup with mostly righties nowadays. This is just a bad matchup for Cortes and NYY and although the Rays' pen is abysmal, the Yankees' bullpen is near the bottom of the league in important pitching metrics like xFIP and SIERA and Clay Holmes may be unavailable after needing 34 pitches to get through the 9th on Friday. The Rays are a strong team at home as we have seen in the past week and just because the Yankees are the Yankees and they have a strong record to start the year, we get an excellent price on the other side. Give me TB Rays ML. 

AUTHOR: Ron Romanelli

Ron is a part of the new breed of younger handicappers but Ron has many years of sports handicapping under his belt. Ron has a knack for seeing through the lines, consistently beating the books.