After taking a series loss in Seattle to open their season, the defending World Series champion Red Sox hope for better when they begin a four-game series with the A’s in Oakland Monday night (10:05 pm ET, NESN, NBCS California). Which way are we going with our free MLB picks here?
The Line
Monday’s MLB betting odds opened Boston and David Price at around -130 over Oakland and Aaron Brooks, with an over/under of 8.5. Both those figures were holding steady in early betting action.
The Red Sox could also be found getting around +120 giving the run and a half on the MLB run line.
Sox-A’s Betting Preview
Boston just opened its season by losing three of four games to the Mariners in Seattle over the weekend, including a 10-8 decision Sunday. The Sox took an early 3-0 lead Sunday, but starting pitcher Rick Porcello couldn’t get out of the third inning when the Mariners put up a touchdown.
Boston lost as a -135 favorite Sunday, to go along with a -205 loss Thursday and a -160 loss Saturday. So the Sox are down $400 (based on those standard $100 bets) already this season.
Oakland, meanwhile, just took three of four games from the Angels over the weekend, including a 2-1 decision Sunday. The A’s got a quality start from Frankie Montas Sunday and three hitless innings from the bullpen for the win as -125 favorites.
Oakland only scored 12 runs in the series against the Angeles but only allowed nine runs.
The A’s took the season series from Boston last year four games to two.
Monday’s Pitching Match-Up
Brooks will be making his first ML start since 2015 when he went 3-4/6.71 over nine starts for the A’s. He then spent the next two summer toiling at Triple-A level, where he went 9-11 with an ERA near seven. He then did a decent stint at AAA Colorado Springs last year, going 9-4/3.35, before throwing 2 2/3 innings of relief for the A’s last September.
Brooks earned a shot with the Big Club by posting a 4.40 ERA over 14 1/3 innings at Spring Training.
This will be Brooks’ first appearance against Boston since early 2015 when he was with Kansas City, and that’s already a long time ago.
Lefty Price (16-7, 3.58 last year), by our strict standards, finished 15/30 on quality starts last season. The Red Sox went 22-8 with Price, with the unders going 15-13.
In his only start, last year against Oakland Price allowed four runs and nine hits through 7 2/3 innings of a 4-1 Boston loss in April.
Monday’s Batting Splits
Boston hit .275/.344/.473 against right-handed pitching last season. The Sox also scored 24 runs in their four-game series against Seattle over the weekend.
Oakland hit .245/.322/.423 against left-handed pitching last season. But as mentioned above the A’s only scored 12 runs in their series against the Angels over the weekend.
The Bullpens
The Boston bullpen owns a 2.50 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP so far this young season.
The Oakland bullpen owns a 4.68 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP this season.
Totals Report
- The overs are 4-0 in Red Sox games this season.
- The unders are 1-5 in A’s games this season.
- The totals split 3-3 in Sox-A’s games last season.
- The unders finished 43-35-3 in games played at the Oakland Coliseum last season, which averaged 8.4 runs per.
- Get more details: Boston Red Sox at Oakland A’s Match-up Stats
