After the first month of the season, just about everyone had written off the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays were the buzz of the majors. The Rays had the best record in the majors led the leagues in several offensive and pitching categories. The Red Sox were distantly in fourth place in the AL East and it appeared that their off-season strategy to build a pitching and defense oriented team had failed.
What a difference a couple of months can make.
The Boston Red Sox (47-31, 27-15 home) are not a great pitching and defensive team. But that hasn’t mattered, as they now lead the majors in runs scored, slugging percentage, and OPS. They are in the top three in the majors in batting average, OBP, total hits, and home runs.
Boston’s offensive firepower was on full display Tuesday night when they beat the Rays 8-5 in the first of a two-game series. Tampa Bay can expect much of the same Wednesday night when they finish the short series at 7:10 PM ET.
The Tampa Bay Rays (44-32, 24-13) has gone in the opposite direction. They have not won consecutive games since winning three in a row from June 6 to June 9 and are 3-7 in their last ten. They have dropped to third place in the AL East, where they trail first-place New York by three games and second-place Boston by two.
Daisuke Matsuzaka (5-2, 4.50 ERA) will take the mound for Boston and he will be up against Matt Garza (8-5, 4.10 ERA). Matsuzaka is 2-4 with a 4.05 ERA in nine starts against the Rays. Garza has split two starts against Boston this season, pitching eight scoreless innings in a 7-1 win at Fenway Park and giving up six runs over five innings in a home loss.
The baseball odds list the Red Sox as slight favorites at -120 to the Rays +100. The over/under is 9.5.
