Texas Rangers at Boston Red Sox Betting Preview/Prop Picks
01 September 2022
Time: 7:10 pm ET
Dunkel Ratings: Texas 15.249; Boston 14.222
Dunkel Line & Total: Texas by 1; 7
Vegas Line & Total: Boston (-167); 9 ½
Dunkel Pick: Texas (+141); Under
With a record of 58-71, the Texas Rangers will likely miss the postseason. However, this won’t deter them from getting as many wins as possible this season.
After four straight losses, the Rangers need to get a win tonight, even if it’s only for morale. Unfortunately, they face one of the best batting teams in the league, the Boston Red Sox.
The Boston Red Sox don’t have a very impressive record either at 63-68. Although each of these teams are well under .500, the Red Sox are -167. Coming in as the favorite, the Red Sox can’t take the Rangers lightly.
These two teams have played before, and the Rangers got the better of them. So, between the Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox, who’s the best bet?
Texas Rangers: Glenn Otto gets the start on the mound
As always, pitching plays a vital role in any baseball game. Glenn Otto has a 6-8 record this season with a 4.79 ERA. This is average across the league but slightly good for the Rangers.
Once they enter the offseason, the Rangers need to focus on building their bullpen. At the moment, their pitching situation needs a lot of work, but they have some reliable batting.
As a team, the Rangers have a batting average of .244, ranking 15th overall. They’ve scored 584 runs this season, ranking 12th, and have the 13th-best slugging percentage (.401). This team has a lot of potential, especially with the right pitchers.
In their most recent game against the Red Sox, they won 7-1. They’ll try to repeat that performance on the road tonight.
Boston Red Sox: Boston needs to focus on strong batting tonight
If the Boston Red Sox can put together a strong batting outing, they should be just fine. However, recent games have seen the Red Sox struggle at the plate.
Before last night’s 6-5 win over the Twins, the Red Sox lost three games in a row. In those games, the Red Sox averaged 5.5 runs while giving up 8.6 runs. This is something they’ll need to desperately avoid tonight.
Getting tasked with facing the Rangers batters is Rich Hill, who is 6-5 this season. Hill has an ERA of 4.32 this season, throwing 74 strikeouts in 89.2 innings.
He’s backed by a group of batters that has an overall average of .258. The Red Sox rank sixth in MLB in this category and 13th in on-base percentage (.317). Now that we’ve looked at the teams let’s make our pick.
Texas Rangers at Boston Red Sox Betting Pick
The Boston Red Sox might seem like the obvious choice for this game. They have arguably better batting and a more consistent pitcher.
However, the most recent game between these two saw the Red Sox lose 7-1, so keep that in mind. In that game, the Rangers didn’t score a single run until the fifth inning. From there, it was all Texas through the final four innings.
It was the Red Sox bullpen that faltered in that game, giving up six runs through the last three innings. Because of this, we’ll take the Rangers on the road over the Red Sox at +141. We’ll also take the under since neither team is great at scoring runs.
DunkelIndex Free Pick: Texas Rangers +141, UNDER 10
Prop Picks
Boston (+110) UNDER 4.5 Runs
Texas is allowing 4.50 runs per 9 innings on defense, which ranks No. 20 in the league. That average decreases to 4.10 runs per 9 innings on the road. Scores have gone UNDER in six of the Red Sox’ last seven games versus AL West opponents.
With Dunkel predicting a Texas victory by the score of 4-3, take the Red Sox (+110) to finish UNDER their Vegas team total of 4.5 runs against the Rangers.
Rich Hill (-125) UNDER 2.5 Earned Runs
Hill has allowed 43 earned runs in 89.2 innings pitched this season for an ERA of 4.32. The left hander has lowered that ERA to 1.50 (2 earned runs in 12.0 IP) over his last two starts.
With Dunkel predicting the final score staying UNDER the Vegas run total, take Hill (-125) to finish UNDER 2.5 earned runs allowed versus Texas.
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All Media on this page by Associated Press.
