Boston Red Sox Vs Tampa Bay Rays

Daily free baseball picks available at BangTheBook.com, today we look at Boston who is a big -185 favorite with a total of nine runs against the Tampa Bay Rays. First pitch is 7:10 pm ET.

The pitching matchup is Tampa Bay rookie Wade Davis (0-1, 6.00 ERA) versus Boston’s Josh Beckett (1-0, 6.17 ERA).

The Sox (4-5) are in fourth place in the AL East. Toronto is the surprise leader at 7-3, with New York and Tampa Bay at 6-3. It’s still very early, but you don’t want to fall too far behind if you’re Boston.

New York was Boston’s opening opponent and the Yanks took two of three at Fenway. Boston went to Kansas City and Minnesota next.

Boston is typically a great home team. They went 56-25 there last year as opposed to 39-42 on the road. They went 6-3 at home against Tampa last year and have absolutely owned them there in prior seasons.

Beckett had a poor first outing against the Yanks, but rebounded with a win in Kansas City over superstar Zach Greinke. Beckett is susceptible to the long ball and Tampa will try to run on him when they on base.

Beckett was great at home last year with a 10-1 record and 3.59 ERA.

Tampa Bay has had a fairly easy schedule with six of their nine games versus lowly Baltimore. They swept the O’s in Baltimore in a series that ended on Wednesday.

Davis is the fifth starter, but he’s been a guy they’ve been grooming in the minors for a long time. The 24 year-old has very good stuff and pitched well in his September call-up last year except for a terrible outing at Fenway.

Boston hitters are usually tough on young pitchers because they work the pitch count. The Sox are scoring 4.55 runs per game and don’t have the big bopper lineup they’ve had in the past. A rapidly declining David Ortiz is one big reason.

Tampa Bay is scoring just over five runs per game.

Who will win the opener? Our MLB pick is the Red Sox in a blowout, Beckett dominates and the Red Sox offense has a field day!