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The New York Yankees will look to win a series this afternoon when they face the Texas Rangers.

The Rangers grabbed a bit of a surprising blowout win last night, giving them their first win of this series. That won’t repeat here. 

Read all about it in my Rangers vs. Yankees predictions and MLB picks for Thursday, May 7.

Who will win Rangers vs Yankees today: Yankees moneyline (-135)

There’s a pretty big matchup problem for MacKenzie Gore here. He’s posted a 90th-percentile strikeout rate in the early season, showing his ability to miss bats. That will give him success against parts of this New York Yankees lineup.

The rest, though, will be a problem. 

He pairs his strikeout prowess with a walk rate in the Bottom 25% of the sport and a 12th-percentile barrel rate. That combo will punish him sooner or later when facing a lineup that is bottom in chase rate and Top 3 in both barrel plus hard-hit rate. 

On the other side, I’m always a fan of backing Paul Blackburn — filling in for Ryan Weathers — as I view him as one of the more underrated pitchers in baseball over the last two seasons. Why? Contact suppression. He doesn’t give up many barrels, which should play well here. I’d take this to -155.

COVERS INTEL: Blackburn’s contact suppression is best highlighted by Top-20% barrel and groundball rates.

Rangers vs Yankees Over/Under pick: Under 8.5 (-105)

Despite scoring 10 runs over the last two games, this isn’t a Rangers lineup that puts up crooked numbers by design. Blackburn’s breaking ball and offspeed pitch both grade above the 80th percentile by run value, which should provide dividends against this weak offense. 

As mentioned, Gore’s strikeout ability will keep a large portion of this Yankees offense from stringing stuff together too often as well.

Texas and New York also feature two of the strongest run-suppressing bullpens in MLB, ranking 1st and 3rd, respectively, in reliever ERA.

I’d play this to -120.

Rangers vs Yankees odds

• Moneyline: Rangers +123 | Yankees -149
• Run line: Rangers +1.5 (-163) | Yankees -1.5 (+135)
• Over/Under: Over 8.5 (-115) | Under 8.5 (-105)

Rangers vs Yankees trend

The New York Yankees have hit the Moneyline in 12 of their last 15 games (+7.85 Units / 33% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Rangers vs. Yankees.

How to watch Rangers vs Yankees and game info

Rangers vs Yankees latest injuries

Rangers vs Yankees weather

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The Mets close out a three-game series against the Rockies in Colorado at 3:10 p.m. on SNY.

Mets Notes

• Carson Benge is slashing .273/.320/.455 with two homers and seven RBI over his last 15 games
• Marcus Semien recorded the Mets' first four-hit game of the season on Wednesday 
• Semien is a career .385 hitter in 17 at-bats against Jose Quintana
• Christian Scott struck out eight over 5.0 innings of work his last time out
• The Mets are looking to lock-up their first series sweep since the beginning of April in San Fran

Today's Lineups

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Meet the Mets

The offense showed up in a big way in the Mets’ 10-5 win over the Rockies. Marcus Semien led the offensive charge with a four-hit night that included a home run. Juan Soto also went deep leading off the game to set the tone early on. The pitching struggled a bit, but the Mets have now taken the first two games in the series with a snow day in between.

Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, Faith and Fear in Flushing, MLB.com, Newsday, NY Post

Carson Benge had another good day at the plate, but his defense has also made an impact recently.

Snow days are rare in baseball, but the Mets were able to enjoy their day off in Denver.

A.J. Minter experienced a setback during his rehab assignment and will be reassessed in the coming days.

There is still no timetable for Jorge Polanco’s return, but he expects to play first base when he comes off the IL.

The Mets have a solid core of young pitching with Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, and Jonah Tong, but even more pitching help could be on the way.

Around the National League East

Ted Turner, the former owner of the Atlanta Braves, passed away at the age of 87.

Atlanta fell to the Marlins 3-1 to drop the series against Miami.

The Marlins are calling up Robby Snelling, one of their top prospects, to make his MLB debut against the Nationals this weekend.

Zack Wheeler and the Phillies defeated the Athletics 6-3.

The Nationals exploded for 15 runs in their 15-2 rout of the Twins.

Around Major League Baseball

Astros third baseman Carlos Correa will miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury he sustained in batting practice.

Additional reporting about former Tigers Triple-A manager Gabe Alvarez revealed that he was dismissed after allegedly harrassing a female employee.

Framber Valdez received a 5-game suspension for throwing at Trevor Story which led to a benches-clearing incident between the Tigers and Red Sox.

Cubs starter Matthew Boyd suffered a meniscus injury while playing with his children and will be out for the foreseeable future.

Three batters were hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the contest between the White Sox and Angels which is the first time in at least 70 seasons that has happened.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Chris McShane took a look at Carson Benge’s recent improvements at the plate.

This Date in Mets History

On this date in 2012, Jordany Valdespin hit a pinch-hit three-run home run for his first career major league hit.

Rangers 6, Yankees 1

• The Rangers have won a game! Huzzah!
• Not only did the Rangers win a game, they won it against one of the two teams in the American League with a record better than .500.
• That’s right, its mediocrity as far as the eye can see in the A.L. right now.
• Outstanding work by Nathan Eovaldi. Really top notch.
• Eight innings, eight Ks, which is some nice symmetry. 101 pitches, of which almost two-thirds were either splitters or curveballs.
• And even when Eovaldi did go fastball, he primarily used his cutter, which he threw 23 times. He only went with the fastball nine times, and threw four sinkers.
• 19 whiffs for Eovaldi, eight of them coming on the curveball. He threw it a lot more often than usual on Wednesday, and you can see why.
• The only damper was a home run by Aaron Judge, but I’m pretty sure Aaron Judge homers every game so we can let that go.
• Plus the Rangers actually scored some runs.
• Novel concept, that.
• Evan Carter homered and Corey Seager homered. We like that, right?
• The Rangers are two games below .500 now, but still just a game back of the A’s, and tied with the Mariners. That mediocrity I was talking about earlier, you know.
• I mentioned that the Yankees are one of two teams in the American League above .500. They are 25-12, tied with the Cubs for the second-best record in baseball, behind the 26-12 Atlanta Braves.
• The other team in the A.L. above .500? The Tampa Bay Rays. They are 24-12.
• Yeah, that surprised me, too.
• Tampa has won 6 in a row and 12 of their last 13. In fact, Tampa has three six game winning streaks so far this year. Its weird.
• So there are four teams with 12 losses currently. There are also four teams with 23 losses — the Astros, the Angels, the Giants, and the Rockies.
• And there are six — count ‘em, six — teams with exactly 20 losses. That seems like a lot.
• Nathan Eovaldi touched 96.8 mph with his fastball, averaging 95.0 mph. Jacob Latz’s fastball reached 95.5 mph.
• Jake Burger had a 109.1 mph single and a 103.0 mph ground out. Ezequiel Duran had a 107.6 mph double and a 102.3 mph sacrifice fly. Evan Carter had a 106.2 mph ground out, and his home run was 99.6 mph. Brandon Nimmo had a 104.2 mph ground out. Corey Seager’s homer was 101.7 mph.
• Wins are good. Let’s do that more.

Juan Soto had only hit in the leadoff spot two times in his big-league career prior to this week. 

But when Carlos Mendoza approached him with the idea of moving him there in an effort to create more traffic for the Mets' shorthanded offense, he was all-in.

"I told him right away, whatever he wants," Soto said. "Wherever he wants me I'll be there -- anything I can do to help the team out, I'm going to be open to it."

Soto went hitless in his return to the spot during Monday's series opener, but he was able to do some damage against Rockies right-hander Michael Lorenzen to open the ballgame Wednesday night. 

Just three pitches into the ballgame, he jumped all over a low-and-away curveball, crushing it 435 feet to left-center for his fourth homer of the season and the first leading off in his career. 

"It's great," Soto said. "To be able to punch first in the first inning with the team is always great -- it gets the guys going and helps the starter sit and breathe a little starting the game with the lead, it's definitely great."

That ended up being Soto's only hit in the ballgame, but he did drive in another run with a sacrifice fly as the bottom of the Mets' order got things going again during the middle innings. 

New York struck three times in the fourth, four in the sixth, and two in the ninth in a much-needed 10-run outburst. 

Brett Baty, Carson Benge, Marcus Semien, and Francisco Alvarez combined to account for 10 of the team's 15 hits while scoring eight runs and driving in five out of the five-through-nine spots in the lineup.  

Semien spearheaded the effort by delivering the team's first four-hit game of the season.

"It's always great to have the bottom of the lineup producing and helping the top part of the order have some breathing room," Soto said. "It was great to see those guys come through like that."

Soto did appear to have a bit of an injury scare, but he told Carlos Mendoza that he was fine. 

The Mets will look to complete their first series sweep since the beginning of April with Christian Scott taking the ball for the third time this season on Thursday afternoon. 

"It's important to continue winning series," Mendoza said. "It's important to come back and get the third one tomorrow -- but it is good to see the guys playing loose, playing with confidence, and not trying to do too much."

The Los Angeles Dodgers finished their road trip at .500, and are exhaling in a multitude of ways.

The most immediate concern was for their starting pitcher, Tyler Glasnow, who exited Wednesday’s matinee game against the Houston Astros just after taking the mound to warm up for the second inning. Initial news was that it was Glasnow’s lower back that was bothering him.

Back pain is nothing new to Glasnow, who has dealt with it most of his major league career. Most recently the 6’8” pitcher skipped a start last September dealing with what he called “tall guy back”. In 2024 he also dealt with it but avoided the IL.

Glasnow did not put up too much of a fight when the trainer came out to talk to him. He had thrown 19 pitches in the first inning, and that would be all he would throw. After the game, Manager Dave Roberts said that there would be a precautionary MRI when the team returned to Los Angeles, but Glasnow is not expected to land on the IL.

“I think today, given the situation with Tyler, it couldn’t have been a better outcome,” Roberts said.

Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic has more info on Glasnow and the pitching staff as a whole here.

Another thing that led to a happy flight home was the offense continued to score against the Astros. The team scored eight in Monday’s game, only one in Tuesday’s game, but then erupted for 12 runs in Wednesday’s game.

They started the game by scoring on three different wild pitches off the arm of Lance McCullers Jr, but that triplet was overshadowed by Andy Pages’ three home runs. He had half of the RBI and made some great plays in center.

“Just having a lot of confidence in what I’m doing up there,” Pages said through interpreter Juan Dorado. “The bad streak really happened when I was hitting the ball well and hitting the ball hard, just not finding a lot of holes. But staying to my plan, staying confident in my approach, and the results are coming now.”

Courtney Hollman of MLB.com covers more of Roberts’ thoughts on the day.

The end of the exhale was over other certain players performances at the plate. Shohei Ohtani had a double to right center in his second at bat, and added a walk and an RBI single to his day. Kyle Tucker’s bat also seemed to come alive in Houston, going 7-for 21.

Bill Plunkett of the OC Register goes in depth with quotes from players here.

The Dodgers will need all cylinders firing together as they will begin a three-game set with the Atlanta Braves on Friday, who are owners of the best record in all of MLB.

Columbus Clippers 2, Iowa Cubs 3

The story of this game was the performance from Rorik Maltrud. He went 7 scoreless innings giving up just one hit with 8 strikeouts. He has had a really awesome season as his ERA is down to 2.08. He is a little older than you’d like to see for a prospect who is just now pitching well in AAA but he has been the Clippers best starter.

It wasn’t a huge day offensively for the Clippers but there were a couple nice performances. George Valera and Nolan Jones both went 2-5. Stuart Fairchild went 1-3 with a smoked double and a two walks. Kody Huff went 2-2 with 2 RBIs and a double. He has had a really nice season thus far.

Akron RubberDucks 4, Richmond Flying Squirrels 5

Ralphy Velazquez continues to have a great season in AA. He went 1-3 with two walks last night and is now hitting .297 with an .893 OPS on the season. He should be promoted to AAA sooner rather than later in my personal opinion. Jacob Cozart went 2-4 with an RBI double. Nick Mitchell went 1-3 with a walk and an RBI double.

It has been a rough season for Dylan Delucia but he had an excellent outing today. He tossed 4 scoreless innings while striking out 6 batters and walking just 1. His ERA sits at 8.41 on the season. Carter Rustad also had two scorless innings of relief with two strikeouts and no walks. He has had a really nice season as his ERA is down to 1.10.

Lake County Captains 1, Great Lakes Loons 7

Is it just me or does it seem like Great Lakes(Dodgers affiliate) has owned the Captains for years now? It was a rough performance overall from the Captains. Jogly Garcia was someone with a bit of hype coming into this season and it has been rough for him. His ERA is up to 7.25 on the season after giving up 6 runs in just 4.1 innings. The Captains totaled just 3 hits in this one, two of those coming from Ryan Cesarini that included a HR.

Fredericksburg Nationals 3, Hill City Howlers 4

The Howlers were the only affiliate to win today, and it was mostly due to their pitching performances. Nelson Keljo allowed 2 runs in his 3 innings pitched, and then the bullpen allowed just 1 more run in 6 innings with 9 strikeouts.

Robert Arias continues to be the most impressive young prospect on a team full of young impressive prospects. He went 0-1 with 3 walks tonight. He is hitting .323 with an OPS of .933. Anthony Martinez went 2-4, Yeiferth Castillo went 1-4 with an RBI double, and Yerlin Luis walked it off with a solo HR in the bottom of the 9th.

A few weeks ago upon the news of Angels franchise icon Garret Anderson passing away, John wrote a tribute to him, saluting him as one of the great Yankee Killers of recent vintage. Although David Ortiz was far more famous, Yankees pitchers were also quite flummoxed by having to pitch to Garret.

Now today, we’re on the other side of the ball and on the heels of the Yankees once again getting rolled by the man we’ve taken to calling “an old frenemy,” Nathan Eovaldi. The Yanks have lost just twice in the last nine games, and both times were at Eovaldi’s hands. The former Yankee has pretty much always pitched well in such situtations, with a 2.82 career ERA in career 153 innings against New York (including his two playoff wins with Boston), and he’s been especially good of late. Since the start of 2025, he’s allowed a grand total of two runs in four starts across a span of 29 innings, a minuscule 0.63 ERA. Goodness.

With Eovaldi’s excellence in mind, who do you think is the best Yankees Killer on the mound? If you need a refresher, there are some good names to consider. Hall of Fame southpaw Randy Johnson was brutal for just about everyone to deal with, and he helped two separate teams send the Yankees home in October around a time when that wasn’t happening very often — first with the 1995 Mariners, just before the dynasty really got humming and then with the 2001 Diamondbacks, who effectively ended the championship run. He even pitched in relief during the win-or-go-home elimination games on both occasions!

There’s also Luis Tiant, Dave Stieb, Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Cliff Lee, Dallas Keuchel, Justin Verlander, and of course the originally-named “Yankee Killer,” midcentury All-Star Frank Lary. Knuckleballing Hall of Fame swingman Hoyt Wilhelm also had a 1.98 ERA in 209.1 career innings against New York around the same time as Lary, and he threw what still stands as the last complete-game no-hitter against the Yankees back in 1958. If you want obscure and random, I remember the Red Sox having a soft-tosser named Frank Castillo who absolutely gave the Yankees fits in the early 2000s. More recently, Cristian Javier and Brayan Bello have been tougher customers against the Yanks than most other teams.

So take your pick! I think Johnson probably has too much of a resume to ignore, but if we’re talking non-Hall of Famers, boy was it never, ever fun to face Cliff Lee. And like Johnson, he made the Yanks look awful in postseason play pretty much whenever he got a chance.

It’s not surprising that the Yankees’ front office wanted him so much, nearly trading for him in July 2010 and falling short in the 2011 free agent sweepstakes. If you prefer to be optimistic (in a way) though, maybe it would’ve just turned out like Johnson’s own up-and-down, abbreviated Yankees career.

Today on the site, Peter will focus in on an at-bat from David Bednar’s five-out save on May 5th for his Sequence of the Week feature, Madison will have the Rivalry Roundup, and Jonathan’s Yankees Birthday post discusses Tom Zachary, who won a World Series in pinstripes in 1928 but is most famous for something he did before ever joining the Yankees: surrendering Babe Ruth’s then-record 60th homer of the legendary 1927 campaign. Later, Estevão will ponder the extremely middling American League landscape, and after the matinee, Jeremy will pay his respects to the late John Sterling with a tribute from the perspective of an aspiring broadcaster in his own right.

Today’s Matchup

New York Yankees vs. Texas Rangers

Time: 12:35 p.m. EST

Video: YES, Rangers Sports Network

Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY