It's been tough for the Boston Red Sox offense lately and it's only going to get tougher facing former Red Sox starter, Nathan Eovaldi and the Texas Rangers. The Rangers and Red Sox have split the first two of this three-gamer at Fenway Park and Boston will counter with Kutter Crawford on the mound for the rubber match.
Boston is 44-43 after their win yesterday and the Rangers are 51-36. Eovaldi himself is 10-3 with a 2.64 ERA in his 17 starts this year for Texas. Crawford is 3-4 in eight starts and eight relief appearances with a 3.92 ERA. The Rangers are the favorites on the road with their all-star on the mound.
Rangers vs. Red Sox odds, run line and total
Rangers vs. Red Sox prediction and pick
It appears that the Red Sox have somewhat found a groove in at the plate again, ranking inside the top 10 in OPS over the last week. That's a huge bounce back from a poor stretch at the end of June. The Rangers are the team slumping now after losing five of their last seven.
For Boston it's Jarren Duran who is really carrying things. He has a 1.556 OPS and had a hit and scored a run at the top of the lineup yesterday. It won't be so easy for Duran and Masataka Yoshida in this one because Eovaldi makes life miserable for lefties. He is allowing just a .568 OPS to left-handed hitters compared to a .656 to righties.
Eovaldi is a workhorse starting pitcher and he's matched up against a bullpen arm being forced to start. Crawford gave up two runs on three hits over 5.2 innings last time out, but he has a 4.32 FIP on the season and has a 5.30 ERA as a starting pitcher this season. I'll take the Rangers to snap out of their mini-slump because of their ace.
Follow all Josh Yourish's bets HERE
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change
