The Boston Red Sox dropped the second game of their series with the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night, but they are favored to turn things around on Wednesday.
Boston will send rising star Brayan Bello (7-5, 3.14 ERA) to the mound in this game against A’s lefty Ken Waldichuk (2-6, 6.66 ERA). Waldichuk began the season in the rotation, but he’s been mainly a bullpen piece over the last few months.
That means we should see a lot of Oakland’s bullpen tonight, a bad sign for the A’s, who have the worst bullpen ERA in all of baseball at 5.72.
Boston is still a game ahead of the struggling New York Yankees in the AL East, and Wednesday could be a prime opportunity to build on that lead.
Here are the odds and my best bet for Boston’s afternoon matchup with Oakland:
Red Sox vs. Athletics odds, run line and total
Red Sox vs. Athletics prediction and pick
Boston is 10-5 in Bello’s 15 starts this season, and the team has won both of his outings in the month of July.
Bello has been great in those games, tossing 13 innings and giving up just five runs while punching out eight.
The young right-hander hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a start since his season debut. With a floor like that, Boston should be in a great spot to dominate on Wednesday.
Waldichuk – one of the key pieces in the Frankie Montas trade – has a 6.37 ERA since being moved to the bullpen, and he allowed three runs in 3.2 innings in his last game as an opener.
The A’s bullpen is extremely hard to trust this season, and Boston has been hot on offense as of late. The Red Sox are No. 2 in OPS and No. 3 in runs scored over the last 15 days.
Don’t overthink this game with Bello on the mound. Boston is the team to bet.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.