Two of the most disappointing teams in MLB betting action this year collide at Fenway Park for their first meeting of the Free Picks season starting on Monday, as the Tampa Bay Rays take on the Boston Red Sox.
The Rays have been disgraceful this season at just 1-8, and it could signal the start of a very, very long 162 games for a team that is just starting to get used to contending for the first time in franchise history. The only game that has been won this season was the day that Manny Ramirez retired, something that the squad rallied around.
This is going to be really tough for Tampa Bay’s Jeremy Hellickson on Monday night, especially if the offense really can’t get anything going on a regular basis again. Hellickson, one of the names to really watch this year for the Rays as a young gun in the rotation, didn’t have his best stuff in his first start of the year, accounting for six hits and three runs allowed in just 5.2 innings of work.
Now, he has to head to one of baseball’s most hallowed grounds at Fenway Park. Yikes. Needless to say, we don’t envy the spot that Hellickson is in.
If there’s a measure of good news, the Red Sox really have been struggling just about as badly as the Rays have. However, if you’re Boston, you have to love the fact that you just absolutely shut down the New York Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball last night, especially since you got eight shutout innings from Josh Beckett against the most potent offense in baseball.
Perhaps home is where the heart is as well. The Sox opened up at 0-6 on the road, getting swept by the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians, and now, they are in a position where they could be back at .500 by the end of the week if things really end up going well. The offense looks like it has woken up just a bit from its long spring slumber, and though the pitching staff still needs some work, there are definitely signs that this team is coming along.
Daisuke Matsuzaka is the man on the mound in this one, and he doesn’t have the greatest of histories against the Rays. We know that it takes two to tango, but in the last 10 games in which he has been on the bump against Tampa Bay, eight have gone past the ‘total’, largely thanks to his work, like when he allowed eight runs in 4.2 innings against it last season in September. Dice-K didn’t pitch well in his first start, allowing three runs on six hits in just 5.0 innings of work in a loss to the Tribe.
Boston has got its mojo back, and we tend to believe that it is going to win this series and ultimately end up playing very well on this home stand. The Rays are in big trouble, and Hellickson won’t be able to pitch them out of this jam on Monday night. Go with the boys from Beantown for your MLB free picks.
MLB Free Picks: Boston Red Sox
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I am an unabashed sports fan. Free Picks. My perusal of the daily news often begins and ends with the sports section. Perhaps, because the headlines carry ‘Bad News’ and the ‘Good News’ is mostly confined to the sports page. Writing is not so much a vocation or a calling, but an avocation.
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