Boston Red Sox at Oakland Athletics Betting Preview/Prop Picks

A storied matchup will go down today as the Boston Red Sox faces the Oakland Athletics. Boston, who comes off of a 7-1 win over the Cincinnati Red, has a record of 24-27 this season.

Tonight, they’ll face the fifth-place team in the AL West, while the Red Sox rank fourth in the AL East. This should be a close matchup as each of these teams is trying to improve their standing.

The Oakland Athletics have lost three games in a row. With morale low, they’ll host the Boston Red Sox and hope for a change in pace. The Red Sox is a good matchup for them, especially in terms of overall record.

However, they’ll need to make sure that they keep the Red Sox batters in check today. So, which of these teams will win, and who should you place a bet on?

Boston Red Sox: Boston comes into this game as -162 favorites

This is kind of a surprising spread considering the Red Sox’s record.

However, we understand why they’re the favorites in this game. It starts with batting, the Red Sox as a team has a batting average of .258, ranking third in MLB.

They have an on-base percentage of .316, which ranks 13th in Major League Baseball. However, these stats haven’t always equated to wins for them.

On the mound today for the Red Sox is Nathan Eovaldi, who has a 2-2 record this season.

Eovaldi has an ERA of 3.77, which is much better than the starter for the Athletics. Since Boston has the edge in batting and pitching, they come in as heavy favorites.

The question is, are they the right team to take tonight? Or could the Oakland Athletics pull off an upset at home?

Oakland Athletics: A tough stretch for Oakland has them at +150

This is a tough area for the Athletics to be in, especially after three straight losses. They were easily outmatched by Houston in that series, which is why they lost.

Tonight, the matchup is slightly better, but pitching is still a concern. Starting the game for the Athletics is James Kaprielian, who has an 0-2 record this season. Kaprielian also has an ERA of 5.93.

With a troublesome pitcher on the mound, the next question involves Oakland’s batting. Perhaps they could keep up with the Red Sox?

However, we don’t feel as if that will be the case tonight. The Athletics as a team has a batting average of .212, ranking 30th in the league. Their on-base percentage is also 30th in the league at .278, so things aren’t looking good.

Boston Red Sox at Oakland Athletics Betting Pick

The Boston Red Sox has the edge in both pitching and batting in this game. Because of this, we have to go with the Red Sox.

With Eovaldi on the mound, who has a pretty good ERA, the Red Sox should be able to stop the Athletics. On top of that, the batters of the Red Sox should be able to put up a lot of runs against Kaprielian. 

We’ll take the Red Sox -162 in tonight’s game, but we’ll also pair it with the under as well. The total in this game is set at seven runs, and we could see the Red Sox scoring over four runs.

However, with the Athletics batting, we don’t see them scoring over two runs tonight. 

DunkelIndex Free Pick: Boston Red Sox -162, UNDER

Prop Picks

Oakland (+120) UNDER 2.5 Runs

Oakland is averaging 3.44 runs per 9 innings on offense, which ranks No. 29 in the league. That average decreases to 2.74 runs per 9 innings at home. Scores have gone UNDER in four of the A’s last six games versus Boston.

With Dunkel predicting a Boston victory by the score of 4-1, take the A’s (+120) to finish UNDER their Vegas team total of 2.5 runs against the Red Sox.

Nathan Eovaldi (+120) UNDER 4.5 Hits Allowed

Eovaldi has allowed 55 hits in 57.1 innings pitched this season for an average of 0.963 hits per inning. That average decreases to 0.767 hits per inning (23 hits, 30.1 innings pitched) on the road. Oakland averages 6.87 hits per 9 innings on offense, which ranks No. 30 in the league. That average decreases to 6.44 hits per 9 innings at home.

With Dunkel predicting a Red Sox’ road victory while keeping Oakland UNDER its Vegas run total, take Eovaldi (+120) to finish UNDER his Vegas total of 4.5 hits allowed against the A’s.

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All Media on this page by Associated Press.