The New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins will continue their first series since 2019 Wednesday night after the visitors took first blood with an 8-4 victory in the three-game opener last night.
It was a massive win for the struggling Yankees, who entered Tuesday’s series with the last-place Twins having lost 10 of their last 13 games.
Here are our free picks and predictions for New York Yankees vs Minnesota Twins for Wednesday, June 9.
Yankees vs Twins game info
• Location: Target Field, Minneapolis, MN
• Date: Wednesday, June 9, 2021
• Time: 8:10 p.m. ET
• TV: BSN
Yankees vs Twins odds
Odds via the Covers Line, an average comprised of odds from multiple sportsbooks.
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MLB Sharp Money and Line Movement Report
By Patrick EversonNew York has Gerrit Cole toeing the slab tonight, which led to a -165 opening price that moved out to -195 by 3 p.m. ET at TwinSpires Sportsbook. Ticket count and money are both in the 5/1 range on the Pinstripes. "With Cole starting, it's all Yankees money, as expected. We'll need the Twins for a sizable amount," TwinSpires trading analyst Zachary Lucas said. The total rose from 8 to 8.5, with 62 percent of tickets/68 percent of dollars on the Over.
Check out the full line movement for this gameYankees vs Twins betting preview
Starting pitchers
Gerrit Cole (6-3, 2.25 ERA): The AL Cy Young leader will toe the rubber for the 13th time this season. Cole is coming off one of his worst starts of the year — 5IP, 5ER — but has been better away from Yankee Stadium in 2021. Over his five road starts, the New York right-hander is 3-1 with a 0.84 WHIP, while opponents are hitting just .198 against him. However, Cole has allowed eight walks in his last four starts after handing out just three free passes over his first eight starts.
Randy Dobnak (1-5, 6.19 ERA): Dobnak has allowed nine earned runs over his two most recent starts and only saw his ERA increase by 0.34 points. It hasn’t been a great year for the former Uber driver, but the transition to the rotation hasn’t been as bad as his ERA dictates. The right-hander started the season in the bullpen but has made three straight starts where he owns a 4.60 ERA. Dobnak has not seen any of the Yankees’ batters over his short MLB career.
Weather
Be sure to monitor the gametime conditions with our MLB weather info.
Key injuries
Yankees: Zack Britton RP (out), Luke Voit 1B (out), Aaron Hicks OF (out)
Twins: Nelson Cruise DH (questionable), Byron Buxton OF (out), Rob Refsnyder OF (questionable)
Find our latest MLB injury reports.
Betting trend to know
The Under is 6-0 in Gerrit Cole's last six starts as a road favorite. Find more MLB betting trends for Yankees vs. Twins.
Runline pick
The Yankees were in danger of falling to .500 but righted the ship Tuesday night with an 8-4 win in Minnesota that was capped with a five-run outburst over the final two frames. New York has struggled offensively this year, as it sits 27th in runs scored per game at 3.79, but the Bombers used some small-ball to jump-start the engine Tuesday. That was followed by a pair of solo jacks from Gary Sanchez and Miguel Andujar in the ninth.
Sanchez and Andujar have given the Yankees some life in the bottom half of the order of late, as the catcher is slashing .353/.436/.618 since May 27 while Andujar is posting a .296/.321/.741 line since May 31. Maybe these two can be a catalyst for a Yankees offense that hasn’t been itself all year and sits 6.5 games back for the division lead.
Luckily for the visitors, they may not need to score many runs to pick up the win. Right-hander Gerrit Cole will be making his 13th start of the season for the Pinstripes and is currently the heavy favorite to capture the A.L. Cy Young award. However, Cole comes into Wednesday’s start having not been his dominant self over his last four starts. He is 1-2 in those four games and has allowed five earned runs in two of those starts. Cole had walked just three batters over his first eight starts but has collected eight free passes in his last four turns. He’s also failed to top seven strikeouts over that stretch.
The Twins will try to climb out of the AL Central division basement against one the best pitchers in baseball. The offense hasn't been a problem, as it sits 12th in all of baseball in runs per game, but this lineup is thinning out with Nelson Cruz having missed the last two games, Byron Buxton and Max Kelper on the shelf and left-fielder Rob Refsnyder exiting last night. It’s a thin outfield corps that starts Kyle Garlick and Trevor Larnach as Top-6 hitters.
Even at his worst, Cole is better than most, and having surrendered five runs in his previous outing, he’ll be looking to bounce back against a Minnesota offense that’s hitting just .217 at home. The Yankees already showed they can hit the Minnesota bullpen last night with six runs over 4 2-3 innings and now they’ll look to carry their contagious hitting into a meeting with reliever-turned-starter Randy Dobnak, who has a 4.60 ERA in his three starts this year.
PREDICTION: Yankees -1.5 (-115)
Over/Under pick
Due to the Yankees’ cold bats, they’re tied for the league lead in Under wins at 37 through 61 games. The Twins, on the other hand, surprisingly have the best Over record in baseball with a 37-18 O/U mark. Last night’s game was heading for the Under (9.5) but six runs over the final 12 outs sunk that ship.
Cole is 4-8 O/U on the year and, despite not having his best stuff of late, is 1-4 O/U in his last five starts. Cole has always bounced back after mediocre starts and has allowed just one earned over 29 innings after allowing two or more earned runs in the previous start.
Dobnak’s numbers look fadeable but he has been serviceable in the rotation. He has allowed just one homer in his three starts (14 2-3 innings) and has walked just eight batters in his 33 innings of work this year. Cole doesn’t usually see totals of 8.5 so it looks like the books are trying to get us to fade the Minnesota starter, which we aren’t buying. In his 10 starts last year, Dobnak pitched to a respectable 4.06 ERA.
The eight-run performance from the Yankees last night was the most they’ve scored since May 15 — an 8-2 victory over the Orioles. New York has the 10th-worst OPS in the league and no matter how many times they look to be breaking out, it doesn’t happen. The Yankees are 5-2 O/U in their last seven, but the offense wasn’t a major contributor, as their opponents scored 37 runs over that stretch.
We like Cole to shut things down and the Twins to get some quality innings out of Dobnak.
PREDICTION: Under 8.5 (-110)
Yankees vs Twins betting card
- Yankees -1.5 (-115)
- Under 8.5 (-110)
Picks made on 6/9/2021 at 5:00 a.m. ET
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