"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."
That's right, Major League Baseball is playing its first-ever game in Iowa as the New York Yankees take on the Chicago White Sox in the MLB Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville.
MLB betting lines have the White Sox installed as -163 favorites with an Over/Under of 9.5 for this game which will take place in a stadium built next door to the iconic cornfield and park built for the classic 1989 movie.
Come find out our thoughts for this game with our Yankees vs. White Sox MLB picks and predictions for August 12.
Yankees vs White Sox game info
• Location: Field of Dreams, Dyersville, IA
• Date: Thursday, August 12, 2021
• Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
• TV: FOX
Yankees vs White Sox odds
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Yankees vs White Sox betting preview
Starting pitchers
Andrew Heaney (7-8, 5.45 ERA): Heaney has been struggling and his 5.45 ERA and 1.31 WHIP this season are his worst numbers since he came back from Tommy John surgery in 2017. The southpaw has made two starts for the Yankees since being acquired at the trade deadline and surrendered four runs in each outing.
Lance Lynn (10-3, 2.04 ERA): All-Star lefthander Carlos Rodon was originally scheduled to start this game before being placed on the IL with shoulder fatigue. Luckily for the White Sox, they have another All-Star to turn to in Lynn, who is the current odds-on favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award and has pitched to a 1.05 WHIP with an opponent batting average of .200 through 20 starts.
Weather
It's a hot and humid day for baseball in Dyersville, with temperatures peaking in the high-80s during the say, but settling around 81 at first pitch. Winds will be up to 10 miles per hour.
Key injuries
Yankees: Carlos Rodon SP (Out), Yasmani Grandal C (Out).
White Sox: Gary Sanchez C (Out), Anthony Rizzo 1B (Out), Gio Urshela 3B (Out), Gleyber Torres SS (Out), Miguel Andujar 3B (Out), Clint Frazier OF (Out).
Find our latest MLB injury reports.
Betting trend to know
The Under is 20-8-1 in the Yankees last 29 games overall. Find more MLB betting trends for Yankees vs. White Sox.
Moneyline pick
It might be the Field of Dreams but it was a nightmare start to the season for the Yankees, who entered as the AL favorites to win the World Series but were just 46-44 less than a month ago. They have gone 17-7 since then but are still in third place in the highly competitive AL East, six games behind Tampa Bay.
The White Sox are coming off back-to-back losses to the Twins but have a comfortable 10.5-game lead atop the AL Central.
Despite a stacked lineup, the Yankees have been mediocre at the dish this season, ranking 20th in the majors in scoring (4.2 runs per game) and 17th in OPS (.717). And even with their recent success, they haven't shown much improvement at the plate, ranking just 23rd in the majors with an OPS of .682 over the last 15 days.
The Yankees added Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo at the trade deadline to bolster their hitting, but Rizzo is currently sidelined due to COVID and joins other key hitters like Gary Sanchez, Gio Urshela, and Gleyber Torres on the IL.
That doesn't bode well for their chances tonight as they take on White Sox starter Lance Lynn, who has dominated opponents with a 2.04 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in 114 2-3 innings.
The White Sox are eighth in the majors with 4.94 runs per game and received a big boost with Eloy Jimenez returning from surgery two weeks ago. A 2020 Silver Slugger recipient, Jimenez missed the game so much that he would wake up at night with the smell of the ballpark in his nose and the cool of the grass on his feet. But now that he's back, he's hitting like Shoeless Joe Jackson, batting .423 with four doubles and four dingers in his last seven games.
The Yankees will send southpaw Andrew Heaney to the mound today. Heaney racks up strikeouts and has a fantastic spin rate on his fastball, but when batters make contact they tend to make him pay — as shown in his Yankees debut 10 days ago when he gave up four dingers on six hits against the Orioles.
Heaney allows an average distance of 200 feet on hits against him, the third-worst number among all starting pitchers, and has the 19th highest hard-hit rate.
The White Sox have the better hitting and the better pitching in this matchup, so I don't need to hear voices in my head to back them on the moneyline.
PREDICTION: White Sox (-163)
Over/Under pick
If you build it, he will come. Turns out that James Earl Jones was right: People will come and they'll pay a whole lot more than $20 for a ticket, with 8,000 fans in attendance for tonight's game in Iowa. But the real question is what exactly they built.
The Field of Dreams is 335 feet to the left and right-field corners, 380 feet to the power gaps, and 400 feet to straightaway center field. Those dimensions are almost identical to Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago so while the park will be friendly to hitters, it's a relatively modest benefit which could be offset with a 12-foot wall in center field.
Lynn has been terrific this season and has been a model of consistency lately, allowing one run or fewer in six of his last seven contests. And the White Sox bullpen has some great arms as well after trading for cross-town relievers Ryan Tepera and Craig Kimbrel to compliment All-Star closer Liam Hendricks and fireballing middle reliever Michael Kopech.
Heaney has struggled this year but the Yankees have a strong bullpen behind him with their relievers pitching to a collective 3.61 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. And neither team has been particularly productive at the plate lately, with the White Sox scoring 4.31 runs per game over the last 30 days, and the Yankees averaging 4.36.
With the Under going 20-8-1 in the Yankees last 29 games overall, back it again tonight.
PREDICTION: Under 9.5 (-117)
Yankees vs White Sox betting card
- ML White Sox (-163)
- Under 9.5 (-117)
Picks made on 8/12/2021 at 10:50 a.m. ET
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