The Boston Red Sox have had a rough stretch with the bats. They're struggling so much that they made Sandy Alcantara look like a Cy Young Award winner again. The Miami Marlins took a 10-1 blowout win yesterday to get to 46-34 and stay in second place in the NL East as the Red Sox fell further behind the other four teams in the AL East at 40-40.
Boston's losing streak sits at three games and Braxton Garrett of the Marlins will be on the mound hoping to make it four. Garrett is 3-2 with a 3.64 ERA in his 15 outings this year, 14 of which have been starts. He will be opposed by Kaleb Ort who will be serving as an opener for Boston in a bullpen game. After the blowout loss yesterday, the Red Sox are underdogs at Fenway tonight.
Marlins vs. Red Sox odds, run line and total
Marlins vs. Red Sox prediction and pick
In the past week, the Red Sox just simply can't score any runs. In their last five games they have only scored nine runs on 30 hits with a team OPS of .493. In that same week-long stretch there are four MLB teams that are slugging better than .493. That's how bad things have gotten for the coldest offense in baseball. Luckily, they're facing a lefty in Garrett and for the season are seventh in OPS against lefties and are second in the league with 52 doubles.
They can typically hit lefties very well, especially with Justin Turner slugging .590 with five home runs and eight doubles, but they might not be able to find their groove against this lefty. Garrett has only allowed two earned runs across his last 18.1 innings with 30 strikeouts over those three starts. He's only walked two over that stretch as well. Garrett has a FIP of 3.10, still much lower than his ERA, so this isn't a mirage; the 25-year-old is turning into a very high level pitcher.
The Red Sox bullpen is 14th in ERA, which likely won't be good enough with most of their lineup hitting this poorly. Vegas is finally starting to give Miami some credit because the Marlins are a very good team and deserve to be the favorites in Boston. I'll take the fish to back up their 10-1 win last night with another one.
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