Nationals vs. Yankees Wednesday MLB probable pitchers, odds: New York has not lost 10 straight games since before Babe Ruth's big-league debut

Sportsbooks don't set prices based on which team they think will win a given game, but instead which will draw the most two-sided action. That helps explain why the New York Yankees are consensus -145 home favorites Wednesday against the surging Washington Nationals despite their worst pitcher being slated to start and having lost nine straight games. The Yankees haven't lost 10 straight in 110 years.

An AL wild card spot was still realistic two weeks ago but is now a pipe dream with the Yankees at 60-65 and 10.5 games back of the final playoff spot. You can't bet on the Yankees to make the playoffs at DraftKings any longer. How the team has essentially quit doesn't bode well for the futures of manager Aaron Boone or GM Brian Cashman.

New York closed around -180 on Tuesday against the rebuilding Nationals but lost 2-1. It's the team's first nine-game skid since Sept. 13-21, 1982, when it finished with only 79 victories. The team used three mangers that season in Bob Lemon, Gene Michael and Clyde King. During the slide, NYY has been outscored 53-20 and has not even held a lead since the second inning of its 11-3 defeat in Atlanta on Aug. 14.

The last 10-game losing streak for the Bombers ran from May 21-June 6, 1913, when the team was in the first year of being known as the Yankees and shared the Polo Grounds with the Giants. For a point of comparison, Babe Ruth's rookie season with Boston was in 1914. He wouldn't get to the Yankees until 1920. 

New York is 12-27 since getting to 10 games over .500 on July 4. Its season over/under win total entering the season was 95.5. All the Yankees need to hit the Over is finish on a 36-1 kick.

If they weren't the Yankees, they would not be favored tonight considering Washington has won 13 of 18 and New York is starting the floundering Luis Severino (2-8, 7.98 ERA) on the mound. The Yankees have lost his past four starts and he didn't more than four innings in any of them. Severino has allowed 20 homers in 14 starts (1.3 HR allowed per game).

The Nats counter with lefty MacKenzie Gore (6-9, 4.38 ERA). He has allowed 21 homers this year and has a 5.11 ERA on the road. It's Gore's first career start against the Yankees.

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