Cleveland Guardians at Boston Red Sox Betting Preview/Prop Picks
27 July 2022
The Cleveland Guardians are second in the AL Central with a record of 49-47. Tonight, they continue their series against the Boston Red Sox. Yesterday’s game went in favor of the Guardians, who won on the road 8-3.
This victory broke up a three-game losing streak that the Guardians were on. Now, the team searches for their second win of the four-game series.
Ranking fifth in the AL East with a record of 49-49 is the Boston Red Sox. Boston has lost eight of its last ten games, with one game being as bad as a 28-5 loss. Trying to rally back from such poor performances will be tough.
The good news is the Red Sox are starting a pitcher that can help them with Cleveland’s batters. The question is, will it be enough for the Red Sox to win?
Cleveland Guardians: Quantrill gets the start for today’s game
As the Cleveland Guardians take the diamond, there are a few things we want to look at. First, yesterday’s 8-3 win was courtesy of great batting throughout the game. The Guardians started fast, scoring five runs through the first three innings.
If they can do that again, they should be in a great spot to win today’s game. The important part is they stopped the Red Sox from rallying.
Tasked with slowing down the batters in Boston is Cal Quantrill. Quantrill is 7-5 as a starter with an ERA of 3.75 this season. However, in the span of 105.2 innings, Quantrill has only thrown 67 strikeouts.
Still, the Guardians have their batters to rely on if Quantrill struggles. As a team, the Guardians have a .253 batting average which ranks seventh in Major League Baseball.
Boston Red Sox: Red Sox need to bounce back from yesterday
The loss the Red Sox suffered yesterday was mainly due to poor pitching. They had Josh Winckowski on the mound, who is 3-5 as a starter and has an ERA of 5.18 now.
Today, they’ll be sending out Nathan Eovaldi, who is slightly better than Winckowski. Eovaldi has a record of 4-3 with a 4.30 ERA. What the Red Sox really needs to focus on, however, is batting.
Boston was one of the best batting teams to begin the season but has fallen off since. They do still have a great team batting average of .255, ranking fifth in the league. The problem is this batting average hasn’t translated to runs recently.
As we mentioned, the Red Sox have lost eight of their last ten games. If you can’t score runs and you can’t pitch, you definitely can’t win.
Cleveland Guardians at Boston Red Sox Betting Pick
After going 2-8 over their last ten games and last night’s 8-3 loss, we can’t take the Red Sox. They have too many inconsistencies at the plate and on the mound, even with Eovaldi.
Boston needs to address its bullpen as soon as possible if they want to win games. Instead, we’ll take the Guardians at +112.
To us, it’s shocking that the Red Sox actually come in as the favorites in this game. Cleveland is 6-3 over their last nine games compared to Boston’s 2-8 in their last ten.
The Guardians also have a more consistent bullpen and the 7-5 Cal Quantrill. Along with taking the Guardians, we’ll take the under in this game as well.
DunkelIndex Free Pick: Cleveland Guardians +112, UNDER
Prop Picks
Boston (-130) UNDER 4.5 Runs
Cleveland is allowing 4.26 runs per 9 innings on defense, which ranks No. 14 in the league, with an opposing team OPS of .698, which ranks No. 12. Scores have gone UNDER in 12 of the Guardians’ last 18 during game 3 of a series.
With Dunkel predicting a Cleveland victory by the score of 5-2, take the Red Sox (-130) to finish UNDER their Vegas team total of 4.5 runs against the Guardians.
Cleveland (+110) Most Hits
Cleveland is averaging 8.58 hits per 9 innings on offense, which ranks No. 6 in the league. Boston is allowing 8.41 hits per 9 innings on defense, which ranks No. 22 in the league. That average increases to 9.06 hits per 9 innings at home.
With Dunkel predicting a Guardians road win while holding the Red Sox UNDER their Vegas run total, take Cleveland (+110) to finish with more hits than Boston.
Cal Quantrill (-155) UNDER 3.5 Earned Runs
Quantrill has allowed 44 earned runs in 105.2 innings pitched this season for an ERA of 3.75. The Cleveland right hander has lowered that ERA to 1.64 (2 earned runs in 11.0 IP) over his last two starts.
With Dunkel predicting the final score staying UNDER the Vegas total, take Quantrill (-155) to finish UNDER 3.5 earned runs allowed versus the Red Sox.
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All Media on this page by Associated Press.
