The Tampa Bay Rays (40-25) and Los Angeles Angels (27-42) meet Friday in Anaheim, California, to begin a 3-game series at Angel Stadium. The Friday first pitch is slated for 9:38 p.m. ET. Let’s analyze MLB odds around the Rays vs. Angels odds and make our expert MLB picks and predictions for the best bets.
Season series: Tampa leads 2-1
After a Monday-Wednesday home sweep of the Boston Red Sox and a Thursday off day, the Rays are opening a 6-game Tinseltown trip. They will play 3 at the LA Dodgers after this series. Tampa Bay will be looking to reverse a trend of recent struggles away from home: the Rays are 1-6 over their last 7 on the road.
The Angels also played Monday-Wednesday (took 2 of 3 from the Houston Astros) before being idle Thursday. The Halos and Rays met in a 3-game set in Tampa May 29-31: Los Angeles dropped games 1 (8-5) and 3 (5-2) in that series and clobbered the Rays 14-3 in between.
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Rays at Angels projected starters
LHP Shane McClanahan vs. LHP Sam Aldegheri
McClanahan (6-3, 2.85 ERA) is making his 13th start. He has a 1.10 WHIP, 3.2 BB/9 and 8.9 K/9 in 60 innings.
- Last start: Loss, 5 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 6 K in 4-3 loss at Miami Marlins Saturday
- Career vs. Angels (regular season): 2-0, 1.29 ERA (28 IP, 4 ER), 17 H, 6 BB, 35 K in 5 starts
- Has gone 6 innings or more just once this season
Aldegheri (1-1, 2.25 ERA) is making his second start this season and fifth appearance. He has a 1.33 WHIP, 3.8 BB/9 and 6.0 K/9 in 12 innings.
- Last outing: Loss, 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K in 5-4 loss vs. Houston Astros Monday
- Last start: No-decision, 4 IP, 4 H, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K) in 4-3 win at Chicago White Sox May 5
- Has pitched 11 games in his career — 6 of those have been as a starter (5.47 ERA)
- Has never faced the Rays
Rays at Angels odds
Provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated at 1:36 a.m. ET.
- Moneyline (ML): Rays -170 (bet $170 to win $100) | Angels +140 (bet $100 to win $140)
- Run line (RL)/Against the spread (ATS): Rays -1.5 (-105) | Angels +1.5 (-115)
- Over/Under (O/U): 8.5 (O: -130 | U: +100)
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Rays at Angels picks and predictions
Prediction
Angels 6, Rays 4
Tampa Bay has logged just a .670 OPS over its last 8 games.
McClanahan has run into more bats of late, and for the season his ERA has been tamped down by a .259 batting average on balls in play.
A lefty starting for the Angels swings the Rays over to the lesser side of their platoon splits. And look for both bullpens to be heavily involved. Neither has been good this season, but the Angels have things trending the right way in recent weeks at least.
The traveled-across-country Rays are in a fade spot here. BACK THE ANGELS (+140).
No interest; PASS.
The Over has cashed in 8 of the Angels’ last 12 games and in 4 of their last 6 at home.
This one has some fade-the-pitching lean all around. And peg the Los Angeles offense as being capable of more than the 4.46 runs per game posted to date.
Lackluster relief pitching and a forecast for an outward-blowing breeze play into a strong lean on the OVER 8.5 (-130).
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