Boston Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays u9.0 (-120)
Thu April 30 2009 7:05p – baseball odds
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The Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays opened this season with a three-game series in Fenway Park, and none of those games exceeded a combined nine runs scored. Look for more of the same tonight.

Josh Beckett is coming off of his worst start of the year, as he was absolutely lit up by the New York Yankees for eight earned runs and10 hits in just five innings in a wild 16-11 Red Sox win last Saturday. That outing alone has skewed his numbers, so his current 6.00 ERA and 1.62 WHIP are quite deceptive.

Becket had a 3.79 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP going into that debacle, and we expect him to return to that kind of form here. After all, he has allowed exactly one earned run in five of his eight starts vs. the Rays since the start of last season, and exactly two earned runs in another one. One of those one-run efforts came on Opening Day this year, when he allowed only two hits while recording 10 strikeouts in seven innings.

Very similarly, Matt Garza has had just one bad start out of four starts so far, but that bad outing has skewed his numbers. Garza has a 4.97 ERA and 1.30 WHIP overall, which is not terrible considering that includes his start vs. the White Sox on April 19, where he allowed seven earned runs and 11 baserunners in 5.2 innings. Garza has pitched great vs. Boston, allowing exactly one run in each of his last three starts against them while allowing just 12 hits in 20 innings.

So look for both hurlers to pitch at there normal levels tonight, which is bad news for the two offenses.

MLB Free Pick: Red Sox, Rays Under 9 (-120)

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