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Posted at 1:00 PM EST. 

7:10 PM EST. Masahiro Tanaka toes the rubber at Yankee Stadium, where a number of hard hit balls (32% hard contact) and home runs (2.0 HR/9) have contributed to his 4.75 home ERA. Even though Tampa Bay's offense has struggled since the All-Star break, their ability to hit RHP well (.784 OPS-seventh) has contributed to two poor outings for Tanaka against the Rays and surely this could be one more. The Yanks are an overpriced commodity right now and we’ll take the value against them.

Austin Pruitt isn’t an imposing or intimidating figure on the mound, as he stands only 5’11” 165 pounds. However, he commands the plate with a variety of pitches and the implementation of a slider has given him a pitch that can miss bats. He stands out mostly for his control as he rarely walks hitters. He’s been inducing minimal contact, particularly against right-handed hitters. He likes to use his high-80s / low-90s sinker to establish the plate and mix in a curveball, slider, and change-up. The addition of the slider helped him to increase his strikeout rate in he comes into this start with a nifty BB/K split of 8/27 through 32 innings. Pruitt’s 6.25 ERA is the result of nothing but pure bad luck, as indicated by his high hit rate of 42% and low strand rate of 62%. Give the Rays a legit shot here and give us the big take-back.

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