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Boston Red Sox vs. Kansas City Royals Gambling Prediction & MLB Preview

Red Sox (70-46) vs Royals (58-53)

The Boston Red Sox have been the hottest team in the division of late rebuilding a little cushion between them and Tampa.

Thursday August 8
Kaufmann Stadium – Kansas City, MO
8:10PM
Probable Starters:
BOS: Jon Lester (L)
KC: Bruce Chen (R)
Moneyline: Boston -120, Kansas City +110
O/U: 8.5
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Boston

After taking 2 of 3 at Houston they now travel to Kansas City to take on the surging Royals, who are looking to get back into the playoff picture.

It was boom and bust against Houston as after getting shutout in the first the first game of the series they came back to score 22 runs against the lowly Astros over the next two games.

Even though the Sox made the deal to acquire SP Jake Peavy it looks like they are going to try and slug their way back to the postseason.

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Starter Jon Lester has been horribly inconsistent this season. He was hammered his last time out vs Arizona, the second time in the last 10 starts that he hasn’t even pitched into the 5th inning. The Red Sox and Royals are not frequent opponents but Lester enjoys facing Kansas City.

In fact of all the teams he has faced more than once in his career, he has the lowest ERA against K.C. with a 6-2 record. 5 of those wins were at Fenway park though.

Kansas City

In case you haven’t noticed the Kansas City Royals are one of the hottest teams in the Majors right now. They have managed to get themselves over .500 and are only 5 games back in the Wild Card race. Not sure if they can make a push to close that gap but at least they can make things interesting, especially if they can keep it up against good teams like Boston. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]

The key is going to be getting more bats going at the same time. It looks like 1B Eric Hosmer has regained his stroke but DH Billy Butler has struggled this season after being the most consistent Royals hitter over the last few seasons.

Can anyone explain what is up with Bruce Chen this season? He is a perfect 4-0 (only one of those wins was from the rotation) and his peripherals are better than ever. This will be his 5th start since being called from the pen and in each one he has pitched 6 quality innings, never giving up more than 4 hits or 2ER – and 3 of those were on the road.

Against Boston his numbers are terrible but there is no surprise there, the combo of David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia are hitting .333 against him. It is Bruce Chen after all.

Both teams are playing well but why not take the Royals who are good vaue as the home dogs. The wild cards for both teams in this one are the starting pitchers. You never know what you are going to get with lester this season and Chen’s bubble has to burst sometime.

I see this as being a game won by the bullpens in the late innings so I am comfortable going with the Royals.

O/U Pick: Over
Score Prediction: Kansas City 7 – Boston 5

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By The Wiesguy

The Wiesguy is a newcomer to the handicapping scene. Hailing from Toronto, Canada he is always sweet on the underdogs and you can often find his thoughts, musings and picks at moneydogs.blogspot.com.