Wednesday MLB: Boston Red Sox (62-43) at Tampa Bay Rays (59-48)
In some ways, the Tampa Bay Rays have become more bitter rivals of the Boston Red Sox than the New York Yankees have. After all, it was the Rays who faced the Red Sox in last year’s ALCS, and it’s the Rays who have beaten Boston seven of 11 this year, while the Yankees have been no match for Boston in 2009.
On Tuesday night, Tampa Bay rallied past Boston 4-2 thanks to Evan Longoria. He homered in the eighth inning to tie the game and won it with a two-run shot in the 13th. It was his 50th career homer and second career walk-off. He has six career multi-home run games. Longoria owns the Red Sox this year with seven homers and 24 RBIs in those 11 meetings.
Tampa Bay has won 13 of its last 15 home games against the Red Sox, and the Rays have opened as -124 money line favorites on WagerWeb.com for Wednesday’s series finale (yep, it’s just a two-game set).
The Rays are now a season-best 11 games over .500 and within four games of the wild-card leading Sox.
Manager Joe Maddon has made a significant lineup change, moving Jason Bartlett to leadoff and dropping Upton to No. 7 in the lineup. It makes sense, considering in his first at-bat of games Upton had a .140 batting average this season. He was hitting .272 the rest of the game.
Meanwhile, Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay (mildly strained right hamstring) was out of the lineup for the second straight game Tuesday since leaving Saturday’s win over Baltimore because of a cramp in the hamstring. But he expects to play Wednesday.
Tampa Bay certainly appears to have the pitching advantage tonight. Brad Penny (7-5, 5.07) goes for Boston, and he was shelled last time out. In six career appearances against the Rays, Penny is 2-3 with a 5.06 ERA.
The Rays counter with lefty rookie David Price (4-4, 5.10). He’s way different at home with a 4-1 with a 2.67 ERA, compared with 0-3 and an 8.20 ERA on the road.
MLB Betting at WagerWeb.com
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
