New York Yankees vs Minnesota Twins 06/09/2021 MLB Odds, Preview, and Prediction

The New York Yankees look to make it 2-0 on Wednesday night against the Minnesota Twins in their current series at Target Field.

New York banked on home runs by Gary Sanchez and Miguel Andujar to end a four-game skid by beating the Twins 8-4 in the opening game. DJ LeMahieu added two hits with an RBI as the Bronx Bombers won for only the third time in their last 11 games.

Minnesota meanwhile, saw their two-game winning streak snapped by the Yankees on Tuesday night. The Twins bounced back nicely with consecutive wins over the Royals after losing the first two games of that set.

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees snapped a four-game losing streak by defeating the Twins 8-4 in Tuesday’s series opener. New York is 32-29 on the season and they are 6.5 games off the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. With three teams ahead of them in the wild card race, they need to pick up the victories in winnable games like this one.

New York has been averaging just 3.73 runs per game which is 27th overall in the league. Gio Urshela is their most consistent hitter in June with a .346 batting average. Urshela doesn’t hit tons of home runs but he has 26 RBIs on the season. The Yankees are without Luke Voit and Aaron Hick in this game.

Gerritt Cole will open on top of the mound for the Bronx Bombers, his 13th outing of the season. Cole is coming off an uncharacteristically bad outing the last time out when he surrendered five runs in five innings against Tampa Bay. He got the loss in that game, dropping his record to 6-3 on the season. Cole has an ERA of 2.26 and a WHIP of 0.87 in 75.2 innings of work.

Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins are having a disappointing season. They were expected to contend this year but are instead 11 games below the .500 mark. Minnesota won two of four games against the Royals this past weekend but with injuries starting to pile up, tough times lie ahead for this team.

Max Kepler, Luis Arraez, and Byron Buxton are out of action but aside from their injury woes, Minnesota’s pitching has been atrocious. Their 4.76 ERA and .253 BAA rank 26th in the majors while the Twins’ WHIP of 1.33 is just 18th overall. They gave up 8 runs to the Yankees while losing the series opener on Tuesday.

Randy Dobnak will be on top of the hill for the 11th time this season and he will attempt to avoid a third straight defeat here. Dobnak struggled in his last outing, giving up three runs on eight hits in 5.2 innings of pitch work against the Orioles. Dobnak is 1-5 this season with an ERA of 6.19 and a WHIP of 1.44 in a total of 32 innings pitched.

Who Wins?

The Yankees are 0-4 in their last four games played and just 1-7 in their last eight games as betting favorites. However, New York is 5-0 in their last five Wednesday games, 10-3 in their last 13 Game 2s of a series, and 20-7 in their last 27 games against the American League Central division.

Minnesota is 5-12 in their last 17 games as the betting underdogs. The Twins are 5-13 in their last 18 Game 2s of a series, 4-12 in their last 16 games as home underdogs, 1-4 in their last five Wednesday games, and 4-9 in their last 13 games when the total is set between 7.0-8.5.

Head to head, the Yankees are 63-21 in the last 84 games played between these two teams. New York is also 36-16 in the last 52 meetings played in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, Gerritt Cole is coming off a poor showing but it’s hard to imagine him having back-to-back bad outings. Cole struggled against the Rays the last time out but he has limited opposing teams to two or fewer runs in 10 out of his last 12 outings this season.

Minnesota is without Byron Buxton and Max Kepler in this game. That means they will have a hard time generating offense against the Yankees. This is a chance for Cole to get his game back. Give me the Yankees to win this contest.

Prediction: New York Yankees

Over/Under Betting

The total has gone under in each of the last five games of New York as betting favorites. The under is 7-0-1 in their last eight Wednesday games, 7-0 in their last seven games against the American League Central, 6-2 in their last eight games against a right-handed starter, and 5-0 in their last five road games.

The over is 8-2-1 in Minnesota’s last 11 home games played. The total has gone over in seven out of their last eight games as the betting underdog, 4-1 in their last five Wednesday games, 19-7 in their last 26 Games 2s of a series, and 18-7-1 in their last 26 games against an opponent with a winning record.

Head to head, the total has gone over in five out of the last six meetings between these two teams. The over is also 5-2 in their last seven meetings in Minnesota.

The New York offense is struggling right now and that’s why their current trends are showing mostly under. But this should be a good opportunity for them to score runs against a struggling pitcher. Minnesota’s pitching and stumbling bullpen is the main reason why they are currently in last place. The Yankees should be able to score a good amount of runs here.

Minnesota isn’t a bad offensive team. They rank 4th in home runs and have scored four or more runs in four out of their last six games played. While they won’t score enough runs to beat the Yankees, they should help New York get the score over the total in this game. I expect to see a barrage of scoring offense here.

Prediction: Over 8.5

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