Marlins vs. Rays prediction and odds for Wednesday, July 26 (Pitcher's Duel in Florida)
Sandy Alcantara finally has some good luck facing one of the best teams in baseball in the toughest stretch of their season.
By Josh Yourish
If the Tampa Bay Rays are going to get back to the top of the AL East, they’ll need to win a few more games like they did yesterday, 4-1 with some great pitching because their bats have gone cold. The Rays will turn the ball over to Zach Eflin in Game 2 of this series against the Miami Marlins and expect a similar result.
The Marlins will counter with Sandy Alcantara who struggled again last time out and has a 4.70 ERA and 3-9 record in his 20 starts this year. Eflin is 11-5 with a 3.36 ERA in 19 starts. The Rays are the favorites this afternoon in the second of two games against Miami.
Marlins vs. Rays odds, run line and total
Marlins vs. Rays prediction and pick
The offense still isn’t really coming to life for the Rays. They were able to score early on Edward Cabrera, but still got nothing from Wander Franco and Randy Arozarena who are ice cold this month and are desperately needed. Their other All-Star, Yandy Diaz drove in two of their four runs. Tampa Bay is now 29th in the league in runs scored this month. The Marlins are 24th.
It just seems like Sandy Alcantara cannot turn things around even when his numbers say that good things are on the horizon. Alcantara gave up four runs on eight hits over six innings last time out against St. Louis, but that’s actually a bit excusable. St. Louis is red hot this month, second in runs scored with a team OPS of .810. That’s just a little bit better than Tampa Bay’s .647 mark. I like Alcantara to have a really strong start in this one despite how rough it’s been this year.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Alcantara is going to lead his team to a win. Zach Eflin is absolutely capable for throwing a gem like Tyler Glasnow did yesterday. Eflin went seven scoreless last time out and that was against Baltimore’s lineup with a bit more firepower than the struggling Marlins. I love the under again today and I’m sad this series is only two games because I’d hammer tomorrow and the next day if I could.
Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change