After a rainout on Friday, the Red Sox and Rays split the Saturday doubleheader, setting up a rubber match on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park.
These are two of the best offenses in baseball who will look to set the pace at the plate and get favorable matchups to do so against right handed pitching. More on that in a bit as we assess the pitching matchup for Boston's starter Tanner Houck and Rays' starter Taj Bradley.
Before we get to our best bet, here are the odds for Sunday's series finale:
Rays vs. Red Sox odds, run line and total
Rays vs. Red Sox prediction and pick
The Rays are tops in nearly all offensive metrics, which makes sense given that the club has the best record in baseball, but in this particular matchup, the Red Sox can hold up.
Boston is fifth in OPS against right handed pitchers and face one on Sunday in rookie Taj Bradley. While he has been striking out batters at will, punching out nearly 13 batters per nine innings while dishing out less than two walks per nine, the Red Sox are disciplined at the plate, posting the fifth lowest strikeout total against righties in addition to its elite hitting marks.
However, the Rays offense will be able to tack on runs against Houck, who has a 5.30 ERA through 10 starts. Yes, some of his underlying metrics indicate he is pitching better than that, he has a 4.14 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), but I can't trust him against this relentless Rays' lineup that is the only team with an OPS over .800 against righties.
I'm going to stay off the side in this one and just bet the over, with both teams set to get going at the dish against favorable pitching matchups.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.