Rays Will Continue Push Toward 100 Wins

Rays vs. Red Sox, 7:10 ET

With football, people may start to forget that the MLB playoffs are just around the corner. Not to mention we have the NHL and NBA starting up last month. Still, on slower days of sports, or the breaks as we wait for football to return, baseball can fill the void. Although both of these teams have their destiny predetermined, I think we get a chance to take a unit on the game between the Rays and the Red Sox.

At the beginning of the season, the Rays looked like the team to beat. They seemed like they were going to runaway with the division and the World Series would be between the Braves and Rays. Now the Rays are probably going to take the Wild Card and the Orioles will take the division. The World Series matchups are still to be determined, but at least this is a possibility. This game is fairly meaningless for the Rays - they can't lose the first spot in the Wild Card race - but if they want to win 100 games, they need to win their remaining five contests. The fact that the Rays are even within five games of 100 wins is impressive considering they lost Shane McClanahan to injury and Wander Franco to... pending charges. Tonight, they send out Zach Eflin in hopes of taking down the Red Sox. Eflin is having a very good season with a 15-8 record and a 3.44 ERA. He also is second in the Majors with a 1.03 WHIP. The Rays are being a bit cautious with him as they don't allow him to go more than five innings in most games, but he is effective while he is out there. He's faced the Red Sox just once this season and held them to three earned runs over five innings, a game the Rays won 8-6 in 11 innings.

Aug 5, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox catcher Connor Wong (12) hits a deep fly ball which turns into a double play to end the game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

The Red Sox put up a better fight than I thought they would this season. They didn't have a great end of August or September and ultimately that was what cut them off from the playoff race. It wasn't a realistic chase, but they had a chance nonetheless. Then it came to a point where I thought they were just playing the Yankees to stay out of last place in the division, but now it looks like they will fall to last in the AL East after all. The Red Sox send out Tanner Houck to the mound in hopes of at least ending the season on a positive note against the playoff-bound Rays. Houck probably isn't the best guy to do this though as he has a 4.92 ERA and it is slightly higher in his home starts than the road outings. He's faced the Rays just once on the season and allowed four earned runs over five innings. His best start of the season did come just two starts ago when he went six innings and allowed only four hits and no earned runs. He followed that up with two earned runs allowed over four innings in his start against the Rangers.

I think the Rays win this game with ease, but the smarter, and safer, play is to get the Rays through five innings in this game. I don't expect them to pitch Eflin for long in this game as they protect him for the playoffs (I'm assuming he will be their first starter in the playoffs). I'm going to take them through five innings and I'll probably sprinkle the moneyline parlay.

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