Rays vs Yankees Picks and Prediction – 5/2/2025

The Tampa Bay Rays open a three-game series on the road Friday versus the New York Yankees. Tampa Bay dropped to 14-16 following its 3-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday. Tampa Bay has lost each of the first two games of its three-game series with Kansas City that concludes on Thursday. The Rays are third in the American League East, 3 ½ games behind the first-place New York Yankees. Keep up to date with all the MLB action with our expert MLB picks.

Jonathan Aranda is batting .299 to lead Tampa Bay and has a team-high .398 on-base percentage. Junior Caminero is the leader in home runs with six, and Brandon Lowe is the leader in RBI with 15. Yandy Diaz is the leader in hits with 31. On Friday, the Tampa Bay Rays will send Ryan Pepiot to the mound. The right-hander is 2-3 with a 4.24 ERA, 34 Ks, and 12 BBs.

The New York Yankees look to bounce back from a loss with a victory on Friday when opening their series at home with Tampa Bay. New York is 18-13 and leads the AL East by 1 ½ games over the Boston Red Sox. New York lost to the Baltimore Orioles 5-4 on Wednesday and was defeated by Baltimore in two out of three in their just-completed series.

Aaron Judge is batting .427 with 10 home runs, 32 RBI, 50 hits, and an on-base percentage of .521, to lead New York in the five categories. Ben Rice is second in home runs for New York with 8. The Yankees are batting .269 with a .481 slugging percentage. On Friday, New York will send Max Fried to the mound. The left-hander is 5-0 with a 1.19 ERA, 33 Ks, and 9 BBs.

New York will win at home on Friday when hosting Tampa Bay, but the play here is UNDER. The UNDER has cashed in each of Tampa Bay's last six and five of New York's last eight. Tampa Bay starter Ryan Pepiot allowed three runs on six hits across six innings last time out. New York starter Max Fried has allowed just three runs on 23 hits across 33 innings with an ERA of 1.19. Final Score Prediction, New York Yankees win but our best play is UNDER 5-1.