The New York Yankees had been -125 favorites for tonight's highly-anticipated Subway Series opener at the Mets, but now it's a pick'em at Caesars Sportsbook with the Yankees putting All-Star slugger Giancarlo Stanton on the injured list. The total has not dropped from 8 to 7.5 yet, but it might with this news and an excellent pitching matchup of Jordan Montgomery vs. Taijuan Walker.
Stanton had missed three of the Yankees' five games out of the break with what is now being called left A chilles tendinitis but had been expected to play tonight. Clearly there was a setback. The 32-year-old slugger has hit .228/.309/.498 with 24 homers, 61 RBI and 40 runs scored. A total of 15 of his 24 dingers this season have either tied the game (five) or given the Yankees the lead (10). Since returning from the All-Star Game, Stanton, who was the ASG MVP, is 0-for-10 with seven strikeouts.
The last time both the Mets and Yankees were more than 10 games over .500 entering the Subway Series was in 2015 — when the Mets went on to win the NL pennant and the Yankees made the AL Wild Card Game but fell to the Astros. Before that, it was 2006. The only other time that the Mets and Yankees met in the regular season with both teams in first place in their respective divisions was in April 2015.
“It sure seems like that this is a perfect storm with this being New York's first baseball season with legalized sports betting,” said Eric Biggio, Lead Baseball Trader a t Caesars Sportsbook. “It's definitely great for handle. I'm expecting a lot of recreational money on the Subway Series, like $50 bets or so. The Sunday night standalone games are always going to take a lot of action, but I think these games could have the most handle of any non-primetime game this season.”