Rays at Yankees prediction: Odds, expert picks, starting pitchers, betting trends, and stats for July 31

Its Thursday, July 31 and the Rays (54-55) are in Bronx to wrap up their series against the Yankees (59-49).

Ryan Pepiot is slated to take the mound for Tampa Bay against Marcus Stroman for New York.

The Yankees won a thriller last night in eleven innings, 5-4. Three times they rallied to tie the game ultimately winning it in the eleventh on Ryan McMahon’s single. Today, New York looks to make it three wins in the four-game series and gain ground in the American League East (four games behind Toronto) while the Rays look to even the series and cling to life in the rave for the playoffs (three games behind the leaders in the Wild Card chase).

Lets dive into today’s matchup and find a sweat or two.

We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch the first pitch, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.

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Game details & how to watch Rays at Yankees

• Date: Thursday, July 31, 2025
• Time: 1:05PM EST
• Site: Yankee Stadium
• City: Bronx, NY
• Network/Streaming: FDSNSUN, YES
  

Never miss a second of the action and stay up-to-date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day MLB schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game with every out.

Odds for the Rays at the Yankees

The latest odds as of Thursday:

• Moneyline: Rays (-104), Yankees (-116)
• Spread: Yankees 1.5
• Total: 8.0 runs

Probable starting pitchers for Rays at Yankees

• Pitching matchup for July 31, 2025: Ryan Pepiot vs. Marcus Stroman
  
  • Rays: Ryan Pepiot (6-8, 3.42 ERA)
    Last outing: July 26 at Cincinnati - 0.00 ERA, 0 Earned Runs Allowed, 2 Hits Allowed, 4 Walks, and 6 Strikeouts
  • Yankees: Marcus Stroman (2-2, 6.09 ERA)
    Last outing: July 26 vs. Philadelphia - 9.82 ERA, 4 Earned Runs Allowed, 5 Hits Allowed, 4 Walks, and 4 Strikeouts

Rotoworld still has you covered with all the latest MLB player news for all 30 teams. Check out the feed page right here on NBC Sports for headlines, injuries and transactions where you can filter by league, team, positions and news type!

Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Rays at Yankees

• The Yankees have a losing record (13-19) in divisional games this season
• The Under is 40-29-4 in the Rays’ games against American League teams this season
• Ryan McMahon is 6-17 since being traded to the Yankees
• Anthony Volpe is 3-11 through 3 games of the Tampa series

If you’re looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports!

Expert picks & predictions for today’s game between the Rays and the Yankees

Rotoworld Best Bet

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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts.

Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.

Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Thursday’s game between the Rays and the Yankees:

• Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the Tampa Bay Rays on the Moneyline.
• Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the Tampa Bay Rays at +1.5.
• Total: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the over on the Game Total of 8.0.

Want even more MLB best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert MLB Predictions page from NBC

Follow our experts on socials to keep up with all the latest content from the staff:

• Jay Croucher (@croucherJD)
• Drew Dinsick (@whale_capper)
• Vaughn Dalzell (@VmoneySports)
• Brad Thomas (@MrBradThomas)