The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays play the second game of their four-game series in New York tonight, Tuesday, July 29. In the first game, Tampa defeated New York by a score of 4-2. This is the first series of the second half of the season between the two AL East clubs.
The Yankees and Rays played seven games in the first half of the 2025 MLB season, New York won four of those contests, while Tampa Bay earned three wins. The first series went 3-1 to the Yankees, while the Rays won two of three in the second series. Before Monday night, the Yankees and Rays had not played each other since May 4.
Below, we look at tonight’s matchup between the Rays and the Yankees and provide you with our best free MLB betting picks as we try to earn you some extra cash while you take in all the action on the field.
Find the best MLB betting odds here.
The Tampa Bay Rays came into this series with a 53-53 record, which in the highly competitive AL East, puts them in fourth place. In a weaker division like the AL Central, Tampa would be a second-place club with that record. However, he team’s fortunes have not been good as of late. Over their past 10 outings, the Rays have put together a 3-7 record, and they were riding a four-game losing skid heading into this series. Over those four games, the Rays were outscored 26-14. Nine of the team’s 14 runs came in an 11-9 loss to the White Sox.
Despite the Rays’ low scoring in their past four games, the team has an impressive plus-54 run differential heading into the Yankees series, scoring 488 runs on the season, while giving up 434.
Joe Boyle is scheduled to get the start for Tampa. Boyle has five appearances with one start for Tampa Bay this year. The right-hander has a 1.42 ERA with 18 strikeouts over 19 innings.
Jonathan Aranda leads the Rays with a .312 batting average and a .393 OBP. Junior Caminero is tops in home runs (26) and RBIs (68). Yandy Diaz has the most hits for the club with 114.
Tampa Bay has been the underdog in 44 games this season and won 20 of those contests.
The New York Yankees had the best record in MLB in 2024, going 94-68. The club made it to the World Series but fell short of capturing its 28th World Series title, falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Fall Classic in five games. The Yankees most recent World Series win came in 2009. If the 2025 MLB season ended today, the Yankees would be a wild-card club. The Yankees trail the first-place Toronto Blue Jays by 5.5 games.
The Yankees are 31-21 at home this season. The club’s road record is 26-27.New York is 4-6 in its past 10 games. The Yankees have scored an AL-high 543 runs this year while giving up 448. The team has an AL-best run differential of +95.
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge leads the league in batting average (.342), OBP (.449), SLG (.711) and hits (129). Judge is third in the league in home runs (41) and third in RBIs (85).
Max Fried is scheduled to get the start tonight. The left-hander is 11-4 this year with a 2.62 ERA and 116 strikeouts on 127 innings pitched. Fried has 21 starts on the year.
The Yankees have won 50 of the 88 games they were favored this season.
The Yankees have the better pitching and their offense is stronger than the Rays heading into tonight’s game, and that will make all the difference in the outcome of this game.
The betting pick for the July 29 AL East game is for the Yankees to beat the Rays.
Be sure to check out our up-to-date MLB playoff odds as well as the best Vegas betting sites.
