Red Sox vs Rangers | Predictions

Boston Red Sox vs Texas Rangers
8:05 PM Saturday August 14 – MLBN
FREE Expert MLB Picks

Pitching Probables: Jon Lester vs. Colby Lewis

After last night’s barn burner loss the Red Sox will be hoping for a much tighter performance behind ace Jon Lester. They are going to need him to go deep into the game too as last night’s ten inning affair saw 8 different hurlers get into the game. This is not an unreasonable expectation as Lester has been pitching well all season. In his last start against Texas in June he pitched 8 solid innings taking the loss at home. Key to that performance was the neutralization of Vlad Guerrero and Josh Hamilton. They were a combined 1 for 7 leaving several men on base. From every conceivable angle Boston needs a stellar performance from Lester. As long as he is in the game the Red Sox have a chance. If/when he leaves he hands it over to a bullpen which has been very suspect lately.

After losing a heartbreaker to the Yankees earlier in the week the Rangers turned around and broke the heart of the Red Sox. Last night they recovered from a 7-2 deficit to force extra innings, winning it in the tenth. Similar to Boston this game exhausted their pen, especially so due to the fact that Tommy Hunter pitched only three innings. Tonight’s starter Colby Lewis hasn’t won in a month but that last victory was against the Red Sox. He hasn’t been pitching poorly (3 straight quality starts) but the Rangers can’t seem to score when Lewis is on the mound – they haven’t scored more than 2 runs in any of those games. With Lester opposite Lewis the Rangers are going to be in tough to score yet again. Lewis needs to match Lester until they can get into the Sox bullpen.

Prediction: I don’t like what we are seeing from the Sox pen. I can see this one coming down to the last at bat again and I like the Rangers better in that circumstance.

Texas is -105 and the O/U is set at 9.

Score Prediction:
Texas Rangers – 4
Boston Red Sox – 3

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