The Boston Red Sox will look to complete the three-game sweep of the lowly Texas Rangers in Beantown tonight. The Sox continue to decimate teams who visit Fenway Park as they’ve won 15 of their last 20 home games and own the second-best home record in MLB. They’ll look to win their ninth straight game and have lefty Chris Sale on the mound. When Sale gets the ball, opponents don’t manage much offense as he owns an excellent 2.55 ERA in seven home starts this season. Boston opened as an overwhelming -310 favorite to knock the stuffing out of the Rangers.
- Boston is ranked first in MLB with a .824 OPS vs right-handed pitching in 2018.
- Boston is 8-2 SU and ATS in its last 10 games vs the Rangers.
- The Rangers are 1-4 SU and ATS in their last five road games with Bartolo Colon starting.
To see the Rangers vs Red Sox matchup page, click here.
Pitching Matchup Clearly Favors Red Sox
When Chris Sale takes the mound for Boston, the opposing team knows it’s going to be a long day at the office. Sale owns a 4-1 record in his last six starts with a microscopic 1.10 ERA and an eye-popping 66 strikeouts in those outings. The southpaw is in line to make his third MLB All-Star Game start next week and the Rangers could be a perfect tune-up before facing the National League’s best. In nine career starts vs the Rangers, Sale’s ERA is 3.12 and when he faced this lineup at the beginning of May, he limited them to four hits and one earned run while striking out 12.
As for the Rangers, they’ll send the ageless and rotund Bartolo Colon to face a Red Sox squad that is smashing right-handed pitching this season with an impressive .824 OPS (1st in MLB). The fact that he is 45 years old is obviously astounding to watch but for bettors, they’ve seen this movie before. Colon sports a 4.37 ERA in nine road starts this season and the Rangers are 1-4 SU and ATS in their last five road games with the righty on the bump. It’s worth mentioning that in 17 career starts at Fenway Park, Colon has a respectable 3.70 ERA but an ugly 1.52 WHIP.
Red Sox have Owned this Matchup
On paper, the Red Sox are the better team and over the last two seasons, Boston has smoked the Rangers by winning eight of the last 10 games in this matchup (8-2 ATS) and outscoring them 62-41 in those games. That’s an average win margin of 3.6 runs per game so if bettors are looking for any value to back the Sox, stick to their -1.5 runline as the Beantown Bombers are 15-5 ATS in their last 20 games at Fenway Park.
Totals Bettors should Eye The OVER
The total opened at 8.5 and totals bettors may want to consider the OVER in this tilt. The OVER has hit in four of Boston’s last five games, with an average combined score of 12.4 runs per game. The OVER also seems likely when you factor in that the average combined final score when Bartolo Colon pitches is 9.8 runs per game. With the way the Red Sox have been hitting lately, it could be a scorefest in Massachusetts.
