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Game Overview

Arguably the top two teams in the American League start a four-game set on Monday night in the Bronx in what might amount to be a preview of the ALCS. The Texas Rangers will hope to steal some games on the road from the New York Yankees.

The Rangers just keep scoring runs at will, and they are up to a whopping 5.20 runs per game against righties this year. They’ve got a great lineup, and they’re going to need it here at Yankee Stadium, knowing that the Bronx Bombers are going to put runs on the board in a big time way. This is going to be the third start for Ryan Dempster since coming over to the Lone Star State at the trade deadline. Dempster has led his team to a 2-0 mark, but he still has a 6.35 ERA and a 1.68 WHIP to show for his work in those outings. Needless to say, without the 10.5 runs per game that Dempster has gotten, there would be no way that he would have a win, let alone have the ability to lead his team to a pair of wins in as many games. Still, we tend to think that this is making up for all of those games with the Chicago Cubs in which he allowed two runs in seven innings and got the loss for his efforts.

The Yanks are really starting to scramble in their starting rotation. They never did land a big time arm to complement the rest of this staff at the trade deadline as they figured that they would be able to, and now with CC Sabathia on the DL, matters are really starting to get dire. That’s why David Phelps is going to be making just the fourth start of his career on Monday night. Phelps is used to working out of the bullpen, and he has been doing so, mostly in long relief over the course of the last several weeks. Since getting back in the pen on July 19th, Phelps has been awesome, throwing 10.2 innings of scoreless ball, allowing just three hits and two walks in the process. He also has 14 strikeouts in that period of time to boot. The righty really has some gas, and he isn’t afraid to use it, but there is a heck of a big difference between coming in to get out of a jam, knowing that you’re only going to face a few batters, and knowing that you are going to see one of the best lineups in baseball at least three times apiece.

Prediction

We have loved to back the ‘over’ quite a bit in the first two starts for Dempster here in Texas, and we think that this is no exception whatsoever. Phelps might see himself get taken out of this game early, and the New York bullpen isn’t deep enough to make up for it even though there are a heck of a lot of arms that are down there and available. Go with the ‘over’ in what should amount to be a heck of a start to what should be an explosive series featuring a ton of runs. New York 9 – Texas 7