MLB picks: Rays vs. Mets, Rockies vs. Giants (Sept. 22)

Tuesday night’s baseball slate features an interleague matchup between the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Mets, and an NL West showdown between the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants. Here are our best bets on the diamond for this evening.

Tampa Bay Rays (36-19) vs. New York Mets (24-30), 7:10 p.m. ET

It’s a tale of two teams at Citi Field on Tuesday night; the Rays are looking to clinch the AL East, while the Mets’ playoff hopes are on life support. The Rays appear to have the edge in both the pitching and hitting departments and have momentum on their side heading into this one.

Blake Snell (4-1, 3.05 ERA) starts for Tampa, and he’s surrendered only one earned run over his last two starts (10 2/3 innings). New York’s bats have cooled since an 18-run outburst against the Blue Jays on Sept. 11. Over the following nine games, the Mets have averaged a mere 3.44 runs per tilt. It would not be surprising to see Jeff McNeill and company languish against Snell and the Rays bullpen (3.40 ERA, fourth in the majors).

Seth Lugo (2-3, 4.34 ERA) counters for the Mets, and a once-promising start to his rotation re-entry has gone by the wayside. His effort on Sept. 12 against the Blue Jays was decent (three earned runs allowed through 5 1/3 innings), but his most recent outing against the Phillies was dismal, as he gave up six earned runs in just 1 2/3 innings.

Tampa’s offense has proven opportunistic during their current 5-1 run, as four of those victories were by the narrowest of margins. They could also be helped by a Mets bullpen, which is 23rd by ERA over the last seven days (4.85).

MLB pick: Rays moneyline

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Colorado Rockies (24-29) vs. San Francisco Giants (26-27), 9:45 p.m. ET

The Giants have a distinct bullpen advantage over the Rockies on Tuesday night – San Francisco has a second-ranked 1.67 ERA over the last seven days while Colorado’s 7.45 ERA is second-worst in the majors in that span – but that doesn’t mean the Rockies won’t get off on the right foot in this one.

Kyle Freeland (2-2, 3.75 ERA) starts for Colorado, and he has some solid road splits to his credit in 2020. All four of his outings away from Coors Field this year have been quality starts, including his six innings of shutout baseball against the Padres’ potent offense at Petco Park on Sept. 7.

Giants starter Drew Smyly (0-0, 3.94 ERA) will probably not last long here. He pitched 7 2/3 innings over his last two efforts combined and produced a 4.70 ERA. Colorado has been getting offense from some unexpected sources lately; Kevin Pillar is batting .387 during his current 10-game hitting streak, while Josh Fuentes has a .385 average in September. The visiting Rockies should get on the board first.

 MLB pick: Rockies to score first (-130)