Sunday MLB Best Bet: Red Sox vs. Rays

Written by Jake Thompson
Saturday, 16 July 2011 21:24

The televised game between the Red Sox and the Rays will be our MLB best bet for Sunday.

Sunday’s MLB late game between the Boston Red Sox (55-36) and the Tampa Bay Rays (50-41) will be shown live on the ESPN network at 8:00 PM ET, and it just so happens that this American League East clash presents the best bet on the entire card.  Although the Rays have once again proven doubters wrong with their impressive showing, their 22-21 mark at home is actually worse than Boston’s strong 27-19 road record.  The Red Sox have won just 3 of the last 10 head-to-head meetings in Tampa Bay as of this writing, and have dropped 11 of the last 16 overall against the Rays.

Boston strikeout artist Josh Beckett (8-3, 0.95 WHIP, 2.26 ERA) will be on the mound tonight and his presence was enough for the online sportsbooks to favor the Red Sox at -150 odds.  Beckett has been terrific all season long and will be going against a Tampa Bay team that has hit just .228 in their home confines this year.  Although the Rays have started to hit a bit better after some early season injuries, it doesn’t help their cause that they’ve scored just 1 earned run off Beckett over his last 3 starts against them.

Opposing Beckett will be right-hander Jeff Niemann (4-4, 1.42 WHIP, 4.53 ERA) and his impressive fastball.  Niemann has struggled with his location for much of the season and will be going up against a red-hot Boston offense that has put up a .302 batting average over the course of their last 10 games.  Although the Red Sox are still without left fielder Carl Crawford (hamstring), you can bet that Boston still has plenty of offensive firepower left in the tank.  Niemann has been hit or miss in his 4 career starts against Boston, giving up 11 earned runs over just 4.2 innings pitched in his losses but only allowing 2 earned runs over 13.0 innings during his victories.

With the bullpens being just about equal, this one will largely be decided by how the starting pitchers match up against the opposing offenses.  Beckett comes up looking prettier in that category, but I am a little concerned because of a knee injury he suffered after slipping on the mound during his last start before the All-Star break.  That being said, I just have to believe that he’ll fare much better against the light-hitting Rays than Niemann will against a Boston lineup that is full of tough outs right now.

Red Sox 5

Rays 3