Sport: MLBPick Selection: Boston Red Sox (Wakefield) -137
Oakland A?s at Boston Red Sox 7:05 PM ET
Boston Red Sox (Wakefield) -137
**73.2% Top Play Blowout of the Night** Thursday was an off day for the Red Sox but a lot happened as they shipped out Manny Ramirez and welcomed in Jason Bay. From a numbers perspective, they lost but from a winning attitude perspective they won. Boston is currently riding a three-game losing skid after getting swept at home against the best team in baseball, the Angels. Despite that, Boston still has the 2nd best home record in the A.L. and face a team with even more struggles. Boston is 17-7 in the last 24 home meetings against Oakland.
The A?s meanwhile has dropped three straight as well but their problems go back much further. They have lost 12 of their last 14 games and prior to the start of this skid, they trailed the Angels by only four games and that has since ballooned to 14.5 games. Oakland is pretty much out of everything now and it is playing like a team that is playing for nothing. Getting swept at home against Kansas City prior to this series was not the way to commence this roadtrip. The A?s are 8-21 in their last 29 games as an underdog.
Boston sends Tim Wakefield to the hill in hopes of providing some relief to the recent pitching problems. Wakefield has gone two straight games without a quality start for just the second time. He had gone nine straight quality starts prior to this so the potential to get back on track in there. He has a 3.68 ERA at home where Boston is 6-3 in his nine starts. He was hit hard in Oakland in his lone start this year but is 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA in his last three in Boston against the A?s. The Red Sox are 22-7 in his last 29 starts against a team with a losing record.
Oakland counters with Jim Duchscherer who is coming off his worst outing of the season and by a lot. He allowed eight runs in six innings against the Rangers and prior to this, the most runs he had allowed in a start was three and that occurred only once. The easy thinking here is that he will bounce back but he has never been in this spot before so that thinking can be tossed out. Despite a 2.37 ERA on the season, best in all of baseball, Oakland is just 10-8 in his 18 starts ad has dropped three straight. Play Boston Red Sox 2.5 Units
|
Handicappers
