An important American League East showdown will take place this evening as the Boston Red Sox battle it out with their divisional rivals in the Tampa Bay Rays out on the diamond. It is time to take an exclusive sneak peek at our MLB odds series, where our Red Sox-Rays prediction and pick will be revealed.
Now at 47-42 and standing in third place in the AL East, the Red Sox have dropped three straight to Tampa Bay in their pursuit of a Wild Card spot this fall and will look to avoid the four-game sweep by sending out righty Kutter Crawford to hopefully silence the Rays bats. Crawford is 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA on the season.
After losing a trio of ballgames at the hands of the pitiful Reds, the Rays have come alive at home against Boston by outscoring their rivals 17-8 over the course of three games. Looking for the illustrious sweep, Tampa Bay will call upon RHP Drew Rasmussen who has compiled a 5-3 record with a not too shabby 3.11 ERA in his 14 starts on the year.
Here are the Red Sox-Rays MLB odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
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It has been a disastrous series, to say the least for Boston, as they have failed to gain ground on the Rays and have instead surrendered second-place in the division to Tampa Bay. Now losers in seven of their previous nine games played, the Red Sox are desperate to start adding to the win column before it becomes too late.
Despite the Red Sox struggles, they are still more than capable to cover the spread on the road at Tropicana Field against the Rays. To begin, Boston must possess a short memory and find a way to get the bats going. In their two previous matchups on Tuesday and Wednesday, Boston could only muster up a total of three runs.
This is a far cry from what they are usually accustomed to this season, as the Red Sox contain the fifth-most runs in all of baseball. Additionally, Boston is third in batting average and has a healthy on-base percentage at .322. Nevertheless, all teams in this sport go through dry spells and it would not be surprising if Boston broke out of it in a big way on Thursday to avoid getting swept.
Outside of giving up ten runs in the opening game of this series, Boston pitching has held their own. This has also been the case for the majority of the 2022 season, as the Red Sox have the 14th-best ERA at 3.83. Also, Kutter Crawford is in line to make his fourth start of the year and is recently coming off a more than impressive outing in which he tossed five innings and surrendered only one run against a mighty Yankees lineup. A repeat of Crawford’s last start would give this scuffling bunch a huge boost moving forward to the rest of the second-half schedule coming up.
Things couldn’t have appeared bleaker less than a week ago when the Rays were dominated by the lowly Reds out on the road. Eventually getting swept, Tampa Bay has done a tremendous job in moving on quickly and dismantling the Red Sox in the series right after.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. With a balanced attack from the batters box and the mound, the Rays have left Boston in disarray. Usually, a lopsided crew for a majority of the season, the Rays’ bats have come to life and are now supplying an already lethal pitching staff with some much-needed run support. Tampa Bay now leads the season series against the Red Sox 7-2.
Despite leaving ten men 0n-base on Thursday, the Rays still generated enough offense to get the job done. The Rays scored three runs in the opening four innings of play en route to the victory. Although it has been a struggle at times for this unit, Tampa Bay is showcasing that opposing pitching cannot afford to take this offensive attack for granted,
Obviously, the bread and butter of this team have come from their arms on the rubber. While the offense may be responsible for some of the success endured in this series, the Rays pitching has limited the Red Sox to three runs in the past two games. Rasmussen certainly can confuse Boston on Thursday as well. The 26-year-0ld from Spokane, Washington gave up zero runs in four innings including six punchouts in his last appearance versus the Reds.
Not many matchups during the month of July are as vital as this one. While the pressure is on Boston to take charge in this series finale, another spread-covering victory would do wonders for this Rays squad. With the baseball world watching this one closely, Boston is the more desperate team and should give the Rays a run for their money this evening.
Final Red Sox-Rays Prediction & Pick: Red Sox +1.5 (-2o0)
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