Before the season started the Rays were the favourite but a month in they find themselves below .500 and in last place. <\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Rays (11-16) \u00a0vs. Boston Red Sox (13-14)
\n<\/strong>Thursday May 1
\n<\/strong>Fenway Park – Boston, MA
\n<\/strong>1:05PM ET<\/strong>
\nProbable Pitchers
\n<\/strong>TB: \u00a0Chris Archers (R)
\n<\/strong>BOS: \u00a0Felix Doubront (L)<\/strong>
\nMoneyline: \u00a0Boston -118
\n<\/strong>Total: \u00a08.5<\/strong>
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Tampa Bay<\/h3>\n
They currently have three starters on the disabled list, a fact which has no doubt contributed to the fact that they are a shocking 24th in team ERA right now.<\/p>\n
Tampa\u2019s offense was never going to lead this club and there is no reason to think it is going to pick up significantly. The best they can hope for right now is to tread water until pitching reinforcements are available.<\/p>\n
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Rays righty Chris Archer got the contract extension but has so far failed to live up to it.<\/p>\n
For reasons beyond understanding he has suddenly become more hittable this season. He has a fantastic 25\/5 strikeout to walk ratio but is giving up more than a hit per inning. The main culprit has been a pair of rough road outings against top hitting clubs Baltimore and Chicago. Hopefully he will settle down.
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Boston\u2019s offense is finally showing some signs of life scoring 7 or more runs in 3 of the last 4 games.<\/p>\n
They took the opener in their series against Tampa last night and are inching back towards .500. They are catching the Rays at a good time but Boston is hardly intimidating right now.<\/p>\n
Last night\u2019s win turned on one big inning where they struck for 5 runs after being held in check by Erik Bedard. After a hot start Xander Bogaerts has cooled considerably and no one in the lineup is raking right now<\/p>\n
Felix Doubront has not been very good to start the season. In more than half of his starts he has failed to reach the 6th inning and right now he is sporting a home ERA of 7.50.<\/p>\n
In his last outing against the Yankees he did not even make it out of the 3, the second time that has happened this season. He has had problems with walks in the past and does not look like he has cleaned that up so far this season.<\/p>\n
A couple of young pitchers who have yet to get on track are head to head in this one. I think that means there should be plenty of offense so look hard at the over. I am leaning slightly to the Red Sox at home because I just don\u2019t think Doubront will be terrible forever.<\/p>\n
He will give up his runs but ultimately get the win in this one.<\/p>\n