Wednesday Night Baseball heads to Beantown this week, where the Boston Red Sox (18-20 SU, -4.24 Units) will look to end a terrible offensive slump against the Texas Rangers (16-22 SU, -1.46 Units), who enter the week sporting the third-best money mark for bettors in road games this season.
PITCHING MATCHUP
Matters are bad right now for Joe Kelly, and they could get worse before they get better. This is a man with a 5.58 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP. However, this is also a man who is holding batters to just a .232 average even though his career figures suggest that men should be batting .256 against him.
Taking a little bit deeper look shows more good fortune for Kelly. His BABIP is just .267, 21 points off of his career BABIP of .288.
It's actually early in games that Kelly is really struggling. Men are hitting .320 against him in his first 15 pitches of the game, a sign that not only should you be live betting the Rangers early, but betting a run to be scored in the first inning isn't a bad idea either.
Phil Klein has never started a game in the bigs in his career, though he did start off the season in the bullpen for Texas.
The righty was scheduled to start in Triple-A on Sunday, but he was scratched from that start, and most assume that he is going to be getting the nod on Wednesday in place of Ross Detwiler, who was placed on the DL over the weekend.
Klein has an insanely high walk rate right now, and his 6.19 BB/9 in the minors isn't a good sign for his first big league start, especially against a team with the second-highest walk rate (9.6%) in baseball.
ADVANCED STATS
Rule of thumb suggests that the Red Sox are due to break out of their offensive slump at some point soon. They averaged just 2.3 runs per game on their 10-game road trip, but in that stretch, they had a BABIP of just .198 as a team, an insanely low number.
As we mentioned, Boston is taking a ton of walks, which is a good sign for run production, and a strikeout percentage of just 17.2 percent is fifth best in the bigs.
Keep digging deeper and you'll see more you like about the Sox. They've got a team BABIP of just .257, 12 points lower than the next worst team in baseball, and their ISO is just .133.
The bottom line is that things have to get better for the Red Sox, and against a pitcher which allows a ton of walks and has a high contact rate in the minors, live bettors should know that this could be that game.
TALKING BULLPENS
This is where Texas can get into a lot of trouble on Wednesday night. Tuesday's starter, Yovani Gallardo had better work a lot of innings, or this bullpen could be in trouble on Wednesday.
If Klein makes it through five innings, we'll be shocked. That's going to put a lot of onus on a bullpen which has the fourth worst ERA in baseball at 4.68. There isn't a single man in this pen with better than a 2.55 ERA.
What's worse is the fact that Texas' bullpen only has a ground ball percentage of 40.6 percent. As any good handicapper knows, allowing lots of fly balls to this Boston lineup is asking for a disaster.
Live bettors be aware of this situation. When Boston comes up to bat and the meaty part of that Texas bullpen is in the game in the fifth inning or so, be ready to pounce on a juicy situation where a crooked number could hit the board.
The MLB lines for this Wednesday contest will first be released by BookMaker Sportsbook. Gamble on the game between every half inning with BookMaker's live betting feature. Along with an adjusted in-game moneyline, you can wager on what will happen in the next at-bat or how many runs will be scored in the next inning. Live betting is the most exciting way to play!
Need to fund your account before the big game but don't have your computer? No problem! BookMaker Sportsbook now offers a mobile betting cashier so you can deposit money directly from your smartphone. Don't miss out on getting paid because you couldn't bet. Click here, and deposit at BookMaker now! The ballgame pitting the Texas Rangers versus the Boston Red Sox will commence Wednesday, May 20, 2015 at 7:10 p.m. ET at Fenway Park in Boston, MA. You can watch the contest live on ESPN.
