Gray And Whitlock Will Limit Offense

Red Sox vs. Twins, 7:40 ET

Another 2-0 day yesterday and we are really rolling this past week or so. I knew we got Marcus Stroman on a steal yesterday, but my guess is that this guy will start being priced higher very soon. He is absolutely dealing. Today, we are focusing on one of the few guys that made me a nice chunk of change in the first month or so of the season. The Red Sox take on the Twins today in a night game in Minnesota.

The Red Sox are playing pretty solid baseball. This is somewhat reminiscent of the way they played in May where they were a very streaky team. Right now they've won six consecutive games. This game after they started the month losing eight of the 13 games they had. They've been see-sawing between above and below .500 all year and that's probably the expectation of the team. We did take a win in the series opener of this and now Boston goes for the series win after they've already secured at least a split of the four-game set. They get Garrett Whitlock on the mound today. He has been fairly average for the team overall, but he has been hit fairly hard on the road. He only has four road starts this season (this will be just his eighth start of the year) - in his first two starts he allowed 10 earned runs over nine innings, and the past two starts he allowed just two earned runs over 11.1 innings. Twins hitters are just 2-for-17 against him over their collective at-bats.

The Red Sox take on the Twins tonight in Minnesota. (Photo by Paul Rutherford/Getty Images)

The Twins are struggling right now in the midst of a three-game losing streak. They've lost the first two games to the Red Sox as well, so if they want to split this series, they need to win these next two games. The only reason for the limited success that the Twins have had this season is the pitching staff. Thus far, they've posted a 3.76 ERA as a team. The most consistent of the pitchers on the Twins staff has been Sonny Gray and he takes the ball tonight. Gray still hasn't allowed more than three earned runs in a game this season. He was absolutely dominant in the first month of the season. e slowed down a bit in May, and in June he has allowed six earned runs over 15.2 innings which is okay. He did face Boston earlier in the season and he allowed just one earned run over five innings, but the Twins lost the game.

The total in this game is too high. I'm taking the under 8.5 for the game. I already mentioned that I don't like the Twins offense, but I think they have a tough time with Whitlock too. On the other side, although Boston is playing well, I think they will struggle against Gray. I'd love to back the Twins to win this game, I think this is the better way to play it.

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