MLB Baseball Betting: Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers

The Toronto Blue Jays are idle on Thursday and they’ll be watching this game very closely. The Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday 8-1 in a game shortened to 7 innings by rain. With that outcome the Jays are in first place by one game over the Red Sox and 2 games over the Orioles. The Yankees are now 7.5 games back. The Sox carry a 6 game winning streak into this contest. Until a couple of weeks ago, Detroit was in great form but that is no longer the case. They’ve been nose diving over the past 10 games with a 2-8 record and are now 6 games behind the first place Cleveland Indians. They’re just 3 games ahead of the third place Kansas City Royals. The Tigers have lost three straight entering this contest.

The Red Sox will start right hander Clay Buchholz who has been a profound disappointment for the Red Sox this year. The team has a $13.5 million option on Buchholz for 2017 and given his current form it’s hard to see them exercising that. There’s some in the Boston media suggesting that could change if Buchholz strings together some good starts down the stretch but based on his numbers alone that’s difficult to imagine. Boston is 4-10 in Buchholz’s starts this season including 1-3 on the road. He went 6 weeks between a horrible start on 7/2 against the Angels and his last start against Arizona on 8/13. He’s got a 6.30 ERA overall and a 6.55 ERA on the road. The Red Sox have put up good numbers against lefthanders this year(5.1 runs per game) and have been hitting especially well over the last week (6.4 runs per game) so their goals for Buchholz are modest–just keep the score close enough for the offense to win it.

Detroit will counter with lefthander Matt Boyd has been mediocre at best this year and the Tigers have won 6 of his 11 starts this season though they’ve won 4 of 5 when he starts at home. He’s got a 4.58 ERA overall and a 3.58 ERA and looked very good in his last start going 7 innings allowing 0 earned runs and 2 hits in a 2-0 win at Texas. Even with Buchholz’s struggles just can’t get in front of the Sox given their current form.

BET BOSTON RED SOX -110 OVER DETROIT TIGERS