The Red Sox dropped the first of three against the Cardinals on Friday night, a thrilling 8-6 game between two high powered offenses. Can we expect more explosiveness on Saturday?
The Reds will hope Chris Sale can find his form, which his underlying metrics show could be right around the corner, but he has to deal with a high powered Cardinals lineup. Can the Red Sox give him some run support against left hander Steven Matz, who has also been a mess this season.
It's two lefties in poor form, how should we attack this from a betting perspective?
First, here are the odds:
Cardinals vs. Red Sox odds, run line and total
Cardinals vs. Red Sox prediction and pick
Both of these offense can score runs with ease, evident in the 14 run matchup on Friday, and both of these pitchers are prone to getting knocked around.
While Sale's 6.37 ERA is supported by a 3.95 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), which means the Red Sox defense is not helping the pitcher out. While I'm confident the veteran will turn it around, I'm not sure it'll come on Saturday at home in the hitter friendly Fenway Park.
The Cardinals offense is simply too good. St. Louis is top 10 in slugging percentage while posting a low strikeout rate that is the sixth lowest in baseball. Sale has struckout plenty of batters, but has also been crushed by power hitters, allowing five home runs in 35 innings of work this season.
However, the Red Sox should match the Cardinals' big bats with power of its own against Matz, who has a 5.70 ERA supported by a 5.22 FIP, meaning that it's a pretty just mark for him. The soft tossing left hander has allowed more home runs than Sale and is walking nearly four batters per nine inning.
Boston is fourth in batting average and third in slugging percentage, they are going to have a monster day at the dish.
Sure, 10 runs is a lot, but both offenses have a significant edge over the team's starting pitcher that I can't stay off the over.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.