Want a perfect example of how good the AL East is? The Cleveland Guardians are 12-13 and are in second place in the AL Central, just 2.5 games behind the Twins. Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox are 13-13 and in last place in the AL East, eight full games behind Tampa Bay in first. The entire division is .500 or better and Boston happens to find itself at the bottom after dropping two of three to the Orioles in Baltimore.
Today, the Sox are back at Fenway and have Nick Pivetta on the mound against Shane Bieber and the Guardians. Pivetta is 1-1 with a 4.58 ERA while Bieber is 1-1 with a 3.23 ERA.
Here are the odds for the Guardians and Red Sox at Fenway Park tonight.
Guardians vs. Red Sox odds, run line and total
Guardians vs. Red Sox prediction and pick
The Boston Red Sox had won three series in a row before dropping this most recent one to Baltimore. Their lineup is producing very well, over the last 15 days they are fifth in OPS at .785 and third in runs scored with 75.
A lot of the team's recent production is because of their offseason addition, Masataka Yoshida who got off to a slow start, but is crushing the ball right now. In his last five games, Yoshida has a 1.545 OPS with 10 hits and two walks to just three strikeouts. He has three of his four homers in the past five games. Yoshida’s production from the left side is huge for the Red Sox going forward, especially with Triston Casas struggling.
Yoshida and the rest of the Sox will have a challenge against Bieber today. The former Cy Young award winner has a 3.23 ERA and 3.75 FIP with 22 strikeouts, but nine walks including four across 5.2 innings last time out.
Cleveland is 23rd in team OPS over the same stretch that Boston is fifth. I think that’s too big of an offensive discrepancy to overcome unless Bieber truly dominates and he hasn’t done that this year, outside of his first start on March 30.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change