The Boston Red Sox will play the Oakland Athletics in Game 1 of their series on Monday night at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California.
Red Sox Preview
The Boston Red Sox are 50-44 this season and they have won 10 of their last 12 games. Boston is coming off of a series win against the Cubs, where they won two out of three games. The Boston pitching staff has a 4.39 ERA, a 1.31 WHIP, and a .253 opponent batting average this season. The Red Sox offense has scored 474 runs with a .265 batting average and a .333 on base percentage. Masataka Yoshida is batting .317 with 11 home runs and 50 RBI’s for the Red Sox. The projected starting pitcher for Boston is Nick Pivetta, who is 5-5 with a 4.83 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP over 69 innings pitched this year.
Athletics Preview
The Oakland Athletics are 25-70 this season and they have lost seven games in a row. Oakland is coming off of a series loss to the Twins, where they lost all three games. The Oakland pitching staff has a 6.07 ERA, a 1.56 WHIP, and a .273 opponent batting average. The Athletics offense has scored 344 runs with a .222 batting average and a .301 on base percentage this year. Ryan Noda is batting .224 with 10 home runs and 37 RBI’s for the Athletics. The projected starting pitcher for Oakland is Paul Blackburn, who is 1-1 with a 4.86 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP over 37 innings pitched this season.
Trends
Boston is 10-2 in their last 12 games and 2-8 in their last 10 Monday games. The over is 5-0 in Boston’s last 5 road games. Oakland is 10-41 in their last 51 games following a loss. The over is 8-0 in Oakland’s last 8 home games and the over is 6-1-1 in Oakland’s last 8 games on grass.
Pick
Oakland limps into this game on a seven game losing streak and they have the worst record in baseball, while Boston has played very well over the last two weeks. Boston is starting Nick Pivetta, who has allowed five earned runs over his last 12.1 innings of work. Oakland is starting Paul Blackburn, who has allowed two earned runs or fewer in three of his last five starts. I have to fade the Athletics in this game, so I am going to take Boston -1.5 here.
AUTHOR: David Racey
