Live Major League Baseball on Tuesday night comes from the American League East as the best two teams in the game go head-to-head. After a sensational game on Monday night, it’s round two of Tampa Bay – New York.

New York Yankees (87-57) @ Tampa Bay Rays (87-56)

While both teams are almost certain of reaching the playoffs (Boston are 7 games back in the wildcard race) the battle for the AL East could come right down to the wire. Monday night’s game between Sabathia and Price was a perfect demonstration of how close these two teams are with Tampa coming out on top in that occasion thanks to an 11th inning home run. The Yankees did come into this series struggling by their high standards and they are now 3-7 in their last ten games and losers of 4 in a row.

In an attempt to break the slide the Yankees send rookie pitcher Ivan Nova to the mound tonight. Nova is 1-0 in six games (4 starts) with a 2.92 ERA this season and will be making his first career start against the Rays. It’s worth noting that Nova has an ERA of 2.08 on the road this season although that is in an extremely limited sample size of 13 innings. While playing a rookie pitcher may not be ideal for the Yankees it’s also worth noting that the Yankees offensive has also struggled recently. New York have an OPS of .687 in the month of September compared to a season OPS of .790 which is second best in the league. Both the pitching and the offense will need to step up if the Yankees are going to wrestle back the AL East lead tonight.

Taking the mound for the current AL East leaders tonight is Matt Garza. Garza has been a consistent pitcher this season for the Rays, going 14-8 with a 3.68 ERA and he has also been a consistent pitcher against the Yankees, 1-3 with a 3.49 ERA. While he recent form has been exceptional (1.27 ERA in the month of August), he was lit up in his last outing against the Red Sox, allowing 6 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. This is Garza’s second outing against the Yankees this season. His first game, also at home, was a decent if unspectacular affair where he allowed 4 earned in 7 innings while striking out nine. While Garza certainly has enough to contain the Yankees, especially as they struggle offensively, the Rays offense has been on fire in the month of September. In eleven games this month Tampa have an OPS of .834, a marked improvement on their season OPS of .745 and they will certainly be aiming to continue that against New York’s rookie pitcher.

Tampa Bay are 8/13 at Bluesq favourites for tonight’s game and you’d have to fancy them considering the pitchers involved. The totals runs market is set at under / over 9 runs so it’s worth noting that in twelve games this season, nine of them have had at least 9 runs although the last two games had a combined total of four as the pitchers took over.