2020-07-31 19:05:00 EDT
The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees meet in an AL East division matchup from Yankee Stadium on Friday night.
The Boston Red Sox come into this game looking to build on a 4-2 win over the New York Mets in Thursday’s series finale. Christian Vazquez led the BoSox by going 2 for 4 with a pair of home runs and three RBIs while Jose Peraza added an RBI as well to finish off Boston’s scoring as a team in the winning effort. Alex Verdugo and Michael Chavis each had a pair of hits while J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts each added a base knock as well in the win. Martin Perez got the win to improve to 1-1 after allowing a pair of runs on two hits while striking out five over 5.2 innings of work. Brandon Workman closed out the 9th for his 2nd save of the season. Ryan Weber will start this one and is 0-1 with a 14.73 ERA this season. This will be Weber’s first career start against the Yankees.
The New York Yankees will look to build off of an 8-6 victory over Baltimore last time out. Luke Voit led the way with a grand slam while Aaron Judge belted a three-run home run. Giancarlo Stanton went 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI to finish off the Yankees’ scoring as a team in the win. Aaron Hicks added a double and Miguel Andujar chipped in a base knock as well in the victory. J.A. Happ gave up four runs on four hits over four innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Jonathan Loaisiga got the win to improve to 1-0 while Zach Britton picked up his second save of the year. Jordan Montgomery will start this game and was 0-0 with a 6.75 ERA and 5 strikeouts last season. In his career, Montgomery is 0-0 with a 4.40 ERA and 10 strikeouts against Boston.
Boston is 1-4 in their last 5 games overall and 8-20 in their last 28 division games while the over is 5-0-1 in their last 6 games as a road underdog. New York is 4-0 in their last 4 series opening matchups and 38-13 in their last 51 home games while the over is 21-8-2 in their last 31 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400. Boston is 1-8 in the last 9 meetings between these two teams and 0-4 in the last 4 meetings between these two teams in New York.
This matchup is all about picking the lesser of two evils, like would you rather have the Red Sox who win games here and there but have a pitcher on the mound in Weber who got rocked in his first start? Or a New York team that’s better offensively but has Montgomery on the mound who has appeared in just two games since the 2018 season. Instead, I’m going to side with the over as I see the bats come alive for his game.
