Yankees vs. Angels Prediction and Odds for Wednesday, August 31 (New York Is an UNDER Machine)
By Peter Dewey
At this point, New York Yankees star Aaron Judge is becoming one of the most obvious choices for AL MVP in recent memory.
Sure, he’s facing another contender in Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, but Judge continues to smash home run after home run, hitting his 51st on Tuesday night to lead the Yankees to a much-needed 7-4 victory.
#AllRise for Home Run 51 🙌 pic.twitter.com/qL7i5k3rli
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 31, 2022
The difference in this MVP race is the fact that New York, a division leader, would be virtually nowhere without Judge, while Ohtani’s Angels are going to miss the playoffs regardless if he was on the team this season or not.
I’ve been covering baseball for 36 years and the season @TheJudge44 is having is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Take hm off the @yankees and they’d have trouble making playoffs. Take Ohtani off @Angels and they still would be on the outside looking in. Most valuable?
— Michael Kay (@RealMichaelKay) August 30, 2022
So, can Judge add to his MVP case tonight? He’s going to face Angels starter Patrick Sandoval (4-9, 3.05 ERA) who has really pitched well this season with a Fielding Independent Pitching of 3.15. Gerrit Cole (10-6, 3.31 ERA) gets the ball for New York, and is coming off one of his best outings of the year, a 7.1-inning performance against Oakland.
Can Los Angeles take the rubber match, or do the Yankees escape this West Coast trip with a 4-3 record? Here are the odds from WynnBET:
Yankees vs. Angels Odds, Run Line and Total
Yankees vs. Angels Prediction and Pick
This is by far the best pitching matchup of the series, and I think there’s some serious value in taking the UNDER, especially since the Yankees have struggled offensively over the last month.
Nine of New York’s last 11 games have finished with seven runs or fewer, and the Yankees have hit the UNDER in 14 of their last 18 games.
Although Cole has an occasional clunker, he’s been relatively solid in 2022 with a FIP of 3.18, better than his 3.31 ERA. Sandoval has just four starts all season where he’s allowed more than three earned runs, and comes into this game with a 2.65 ERA in his last six outings.
As great as Judge has been, the rest of the Yankees lineup has fallen flat for a good part of the second half of the season. I expect another low-scoring affair in the series finale on Wednesday.
Find Peter Dewey’s full betting record here.