Yankees vs. White Sox Odds
| Yankees Odds | -175 |
| White Sox Odds | +145 |
| Over/Under | 9 (-120 / +100) |
| Time | 7:10 p.m. ET |
| TV | MLB.TV |
| Odds via BetMGM. Get up-to-the-minute MLB odds here. | |
The New York Yankees' winning streak has reached five games thanks to two convincing wins over a talented Chicago White Sox team. Will they secure the series win on Saturday against one of the easiest pitchers to hit in the game?
New York Yankees
Well — the Yankees are officially unstoppable.
They've now won five straight and even emerged victorious in Chicago on Thursday night against all odds as the underdogs. No team has fewer losses than New York, which has started the season 24-8, and few teams have compared on either side of the ball.
On top of having the third-best staff ERA in baseball, the Yankees lead the way at the plate with a triumphant 125 wRC+. Despite the fact that New York employs the likes of Joey Gallo, Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson, the team has done an excellent job of getting the ball in play with a strikeout rate ranked 16th in MLB.
Speaking of Stanton, it seems he is getting into one of those famous grooves when he turns himself into the best hitter in baseball. Over the past three games, he's picked up seven hits in 12 at-bats with four homers and 11 RBIs.
Most scary of all: New York has actually underperformed according to Statcast with a league-leading .379 xwOBA but just a .335 wOBA. Granted, New York leads in wOBA as well, but the point here is that you have no choice but to call this start legitimate.
Jordan Montgomery will get the ball for the Yankees, and that has generally been good news this season. While he's yet to earn a win, Montgomery has registered a solid 2.90 ERA to this point with just a 33.3% hard-hit rate.
Chicago White Sox
Do you remember all that jazz about the Yankees underperforming at the plate? Well, the same goes for the White Sox.
The White Sox started with a .286 wOBA, which slots them in as the sixth-best offense in baseball, but that comes in 49 points under their xwOBA of .335. That's the largest gap in the major leagues.
The White Sox have been even better at getting the ball in play than the Yankees, sporting the fifth-lowest strikeout rate and the 11th-best contact rate in the game. That helps when your contact is of the utmost quality; the White Sox rank fifth in barrel rate and fourth in hard-hit rate.
As we know, offense is only valuable when you can't get outs. That may be an issue on Saturday with Dallas Keuchel getting the nod for Chicago. The lefty has registered a 6.86 ERA with an incredibly low 12.1% strikeout rate. He's given up so much contact, and while not all of it is good contact, almost all of the contact the Yankees make is good.
Yankees vs. White Sox Pick
It's anyone's guess when the Yankees lose again. The fact of the matter is that while both offenses are fairly close to one another, the pitching matchup is decidedly tilted towards the Yankees.
Montgomery has been much better at pitching to contact than Keuchel has. A low-strikeout pitcher against a top-five exit velocity team is almost always a fade for me, and this is no exception.
I'll stick to fading Keuchel and not the rest of the White Sox staff with a first-five bet.
Pick: Yankees First Five -0.5 (-120)
