It doesn’t matter when these teams play, the games are always entertaining. And this weekend shouldn’t be any different. The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees open a four-game set in the Bronx on Thursday in just the third meeting of the season between bitter AL East rivals. The Yanks’ surge to the top of the division began last month with a two-game sweep of the Sox sparking a stretch of 29 wins in 38 games.
The Sox send Chris Sale to the mound for the opener with hopes of igniting a run of their own to get back in the race. Boston climbed a season-high four games over .500 by taking down Cleveland on Monday, but they still have some work to do. The Yanks are slated to send J.A. Happ to the hill in Thursday’s opener.
This MLB game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees will be held at Yankee Stadium at 7:05 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 30, 2019. The game will be nationally televised on MLB Network.
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Odds Analysis
A five-game winning streak earlier this month finally got the Sox over .500 for the first time, but they’ve struggled to build off that momentum. A soft spot in the schedule following this series is the opening they need to string together some wins, but they will need to beat their division foes at some point since the Yankees haven’t dropped many games. The Sox continue to crush the ball with one of the top offenses in MLB helping the over go 30-22-2 through the first 54 games.
Most expected the Yankees to slide down the standings with the loss of so many players to injury. However, just the opposite has happened and the pinstripes have forged to the top of the AL East. The teams have produced similar numbers offensively, but the Yanks have the stronger pitching staff.
Probable Pitchers
After a dismal start to the campaign, Chris Sale ( 1-6, 4.19 ERA ) has turned things around. The turning point may have come in the Bronx last month when he surrendered four earned and seven hits in 5.0 innings of an 8-0 loss. In seven starts since then Sale has pitched to a 2.43 ERA with 74 strikeouts over 44.1 innings. He is just 1-2 in those games, but his ERA has been chopped in half.
Despite that earlier outing the Yankees have been a good matchup for Sale. He is 7-5 with a 1.93 ERA over 20 career appearances against them, including the postseason.
The inconsistent pitching of J.A. Happ ( 4-3, 5.09 ERA ) has him teetering in the starting rotation. With C.C. Sabathia and James Paxton ready to rejoin the club, this is a critical outing for the southpaw. He’s allowed 12 earned runs over 15 innings of his last three outings, yet the Yanks were able to win all three games and they are 8-3 in his 11 starts.
The longball has been Happ’s bugaboo this season. He’s given up 14 dingers, the fourth-highest total in MLB, with five of those coming in his last three starts.
Live Betting
Happ has allowed 14 home runs in 58.1 innings this season and he’s been touched for multiple dingers five times. One of those games was against the Sox on April 17 when J.D. Martinez and Christian Vazquez took him deep. Happ isn’t overpowering and when his stuff is average he is hittable. Opponents are hitting .261 against him leading to his bloated ERA and 1.23 WHIP. The Sox have hit 78 homers through their first 54 games and eight players have at least five, led by Mitch Moreland’s 13 and Martinez with 11. We could have a Steve Pearce sighting given his career numbers against Happ. Pearce is hitting .314 with six homers in 35 at-bats.
Free MLB ATS Picks
With Sale looking like the pitcher of old recently and his track record of success against the Yankees, I have to consider his first outing against the Bombers as part of his horrendous start. Getting some kinks in his delivery ironed out, he’s been tough to hit since that game and his strikeout totals show he has the filthy stuff that’s allowed him to strikeout over 200 batters in each of the previous six seasons.
MLB Pick: Red Sox 5, Yankees 2
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