\nThe\nAmerican League East division is in a dead heat for the top spot\nbetween the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Yankees\n(currently +500 to win it all) will be looking to get out in front as\nthey head to Chicago for a four-game series against the White Sox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the White Sox can\u2019t seem to stand out in an American League Central division that has been dominated by the Minnesota Twins all season. This series could be a good chance to make some moves, and both teams will be playing hard to take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIt\u2019s\nnot hard to call this one in favor of the Yankees. They\u2019re tied for\n3rd place in a very competitive AL. They\u2019re the third most favored\nteam to win the 2019 World Series. And they\u2019re holding their own in\nthe only division in the majors with two teams over 40 wins on the\nseason. The Yankees are doing just fine, and it\u2019s not a huge\nmystery why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nArguably,\nthe more interesting question is why the White Sox aren\u2019t doing\nbetter than they are. On paper, they appear like they should be at\nleast long-shot contenders. Their decent offence hasn\u2019t exactly\nfailed to produce. James McCann and Tim Anderson are batting over\n.300, while Yoan Moncada and Jose Abreu have been reliably racking up\nRBIs, with 39 and 52 (tied with Eddie Rosario for most in the AL)\nrespectively. Even DH Yonder Alonso\u2019s disappointing .181 BA comes\nwith 27 BBs and 26 RBIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBut\non the other side of the ball it\u2019s a different story. The White\nSox\u2019 pitching staff has struggled so far with a team W-L% of .485\nand a team ERA of 4.94, good for 4th worst in the AL. And that\nstruggling staff has been backed up with a run defence that\u2019s been\ndownright lousy, with the second worst fielding percentage in the AL\nat .977, and the third most fielding errors on the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notably, however, the Yankees haven\u2019t exactly had outstanding fielding this season either, sitting only two spots ahead of the White Sox in fielding percentage, and one spot worse<\/em> in total errors. So with similarly bad defence, you can learn a lot from say, a stat like run differential. And with the Yankees sitting at a solid +70 runs, compared the White Sox\u2019 -55, a vivid picture is painted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nExpect\nthe bats to be the deciding factor in just about each of the four\ngames. With neither team\u2019s starting rotation really performing, any\ngame out of this series could end up being a real shootout. Yankees\nveteran CC Sabathia is chasing his 250th career win, but he recently\ncame off the injured list and has lost twice since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nHe\u2019s\nscheduled to get the start on Friday against Chicago RHP Lucas\nGiolito, who is the unsung gem of the Sox\u2019 rotation, with a 9-1\nrecord on the season. He\u2019s also the only White Sox starter with an\nERA under 3.00, sitting at a cool 2.28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThat\u2019s\na pretty hot matchup, which should make Friday\u2019s game the standout\nfor bettors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The American League East division is in a dead heat for the top spot between the New York Yankees and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5715,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5713\/revisions\/5715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WHAT TO WATCH FOR<\/h4>\n\n\n\n