The Red Sox and the Yankees will settle their three game series in tonight's rubber match. Who are the odds makers favoring, and where are we placing our MLB picks.
Red Sox at Yankees
10* graded play on the Boston Red
Sox as they take on the New York Yankees set to start at 8:05 PM ET and will be
televised by ESPN. Boston showed a lot of heart last night after blowing a 6-1
lead by scoring by scoring two in the Top of the ninth. Yankee Center fielder
Curtis Granderson misplayed a fly ball hit by designated hitter Pedro Ciriaco
turned into a two RBI triple.
This win marked only the second win of eight
games played against the Yankees this season. With a win tonight, the Boston Red Sox
can win their first series against their divisional rival Yankees since last
August.
The Red Sox may trail the Yankees
by 10 12/ games, but they are very much alive in the American League wild card
race. There are eight teams competing for the two wild card berths currently.
Boston is tied with Cleveland five games back of the wild card leading Oakland
A’s and Los Angeles Angels. Oakland is by far the hottest team in MLB and have
won nine of their last 10 games so it is imperative that Boston not fall
further behind with 61 games left in the regular season.
Offensive Matchups and
Comparisons
The Red Sox are hitting .324
against Yankee pitching this season, which would eclipse the previous season
high since 1921 and the highest since they batted .318 against the Yankees in
1984. So, scoring hitting has not been the problem for them season. The
difference between these two teams is clearly the respective pitching
staffs. However, the Red Sox have
perhaps their best ‘Yankee’ pitcher in Doubront tonight.
The Red Sox rank seventh in MLB
with a .266 team batting average and have Carl Crawford back in the lineup
since returning the disabled list. The Red Sox rank third in scoring an average
4.91 runs per game, fourth averaging 9.26 hits per game, sixth averaging 1.18
home runs per game, and fifth fewest hitting into an average of only 0.62
double plays per game. By comparison, the Yankees rank 10th with a .263 team
batting average, fifth averaging 4.86 runs per game, 12th averaging 8.92 hits
per game, first averaging 1.59 home runs per game, but 26th worst hitting into
an average of 0.85 double plays per game.
Pitching Matchups
The Red Sox rank 24th in the MLB,
posting a 4.33 ERA, 18th with a 1.307 WHIP, and 16th with a 2.41
strikeouts-to-walk ratio. The Yankees rank eighth in MLB with a 3.71 ERA, 14th
with a 1.487 WHIP, and second with a 2.97 strikeouts-to-walk ratio. Yankees
have been the better pitching staff this season, but again the starting
pitching matchup favors the Red Sox.
Felix Doubront
He is a diminutive starting
pitcher at 6-2 and just 165 pounds, but uses tremendous flexibility to generate
powerful rotation and late-breaking movement on his pitches. He has a very good
fastball that he range between 90 and 96 MPH. Two-seam fastball always have
greater pitch movement and are the lower than straight four-seam gripped
fastball. His two-seamer rides in late and hard on left-handed batters, which
generates weekly hit balls off the handle of the bat.
The same works for him when
facing right-handed batters, where he can use the two-seem as a backdoor
fastball and ‘out’ pitch. This pitch will start down the middle and once the
batter commits to swinging at it is when the tailing movement of the pitch
occurs. In these situations, right-handed batters will hit ‘nubbers’ off the
end of their bats for easy outs.
His fastball is so good that he
starts off 89% of at-bats with this pitch. he uses a very good curveball 15% of
pitches thrown to left-handed batters. Hitters are batting just .217 on that
pitch. So, you can see that he has the tools and pitches to be able to dominate
any team in MLB.
Supporting System
Supporting my MLB picks is a
system that has produced a record of 42-33 for 56% winners, but has made 37.6
units per one unit wagered since 2006. Play on home favorites with a money line of
-150 or more after a game where they stranded three or less runners on base and
with a hot bullpen whose ERA is under 3.00 the last 10 games. What makes this
system so strong and reliable is that it has averaged a +168 dog play.
MLB Picks: Take the Boston Red Sox for a 10*
graded play.