A Take For Verlander Vs. Cole

Yankees vs. Mets, 7:00 ET

A few years ago, Major League Baseball implemented a new more balanced approach to the schedule. This was mostly an effort to put more of an emphasis on the division battles, but also to allow for the exciting Interleague Play to happen more frequently. Although these two teams played every year, I always enjoyed the Chicago and New York rivalries. Tonight, we are treated to a great matchup between the Yankees and Mets.

The Yankees are one of the best teams in baseball and continue to work towards capturing the elusive Rays that have been dominating the league since the first day of the season. The crazy thing about the Yankees is that they are still somewhat underperforming for the season. The hitters aren't exactly lighting up the stat sheets. Aaron Judge missing from the lineup hurts, but they were underperforming even with him in the lineup. Their pitching has carried them this season and most of that is due to tonight's starter, Gerrit Cole. Cole was responsible for my biggest plays and wins of the season so far when he took down the Dodgers a couple of starts ago. I was saying the line was disrespectful to him and I remain with that thought tonight. He took his first loss of the season in his last start, but he allowed just two earned runs over six innings.

Justin Verlander takes on Gerrit Cole in New York. (Photo by Jasen Vinlove/Miami Marlins/Getty Images)

The Mets are under .500 and were expected to compete with the Braves for first place in the division. So far, they clearly are not doing that. The problem was always going to be the offense. I thought it would be an issue last year, but they were able to prove me wrong. The pitching staff should be much better than they are performing at the current moment. Sure, they lost Jacob deGrom but he is always injured, and is right now. They replaced him with Justin Verlander, but Verlander isn't exactly setting the world on fire right now. He seems to alternate good starts with bad ones. Going back to May 10th, he allowed one earned run over seven innings, then allowed six, then one, then six, then one, then four. That's a hard path to follow, and obviously unpredictable. He has been slightly better at home this season, but Yankees hitters have had some reasonable success against him.

I'm going with the more consistent pitcher in this game. I'm taking the Yankees and Gerrit Cole. Verlander is great, and maybe he will round into form, or even follow the path he has done over the last six starts. I'll take Cole at -105 to win this game. We are getting great value on him.

For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on Twitter: @futureprez2024