Boston Red Sox (33-23) vs. New York Yankees (31-26)
June 4, 2021 7:05 pm EDT
The Line: New York Yankees -122 / Boston Red Sox +101 ; Over/Under: 9
(Get latest betting odds)
The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees meet in an AL East division matchup in MLB action from Yankee Stadium on Friday night.
The Boston Red Sox will try to build on their 5-1 win over Houston on Thursday. Christian Arroyo led the BoSox, putting up a three-run home run while Xander Bogaerts had a double and two RBIs to cap off the scoring for the Red Sox in the win. J.D. Martinez had a pair of doubles and Rafael Devers added a double as well while Alex Verdugo and Hunter Renfroe each had a base hit as well to round out the offense for Boston in the win. Martin Perez got the win to improve to 4-2 on the year after tossing 7.2 scoreless innings, giving up six hits while striking out four on the way to the win. Nathan Eovaldi will start here and is 6-2 with a 4.01 ERA and 58 strikeouts this season. In his career, Eovaldi is 1-2 with a 3.58 ERA and 31 strikeouts against the Yankees.
The New York Yankees will look to bounce back after being on the wrong end of a 9-2 beating at the hands of Tampa Bay last time out. Both Yankee runs came via the long ball as Brett Gardner and Miguel Andujar each had a solo home run with Gardner going 2 for 3 with a double as well. Gio Urshela also added a double while Aaron Judge and DJ LeMahieu each chipped in a base knock as well as the Yankees had just six hits as a team in the losing effort. Gerrit Cole took the loss, falling to 6-3 on the year after allowing five runs on five hits while striking out seven over five innings of work. Michael King will start here and is 0-2 with a 2.86 ERA and 20 strikeouts this season. This will be King’s first career start against the Red Sox.
Boston is 12-3 in their last 15 division games and 1-4 in their last 5 road games while the under is 5-1 in their last 6 games overall. New York is 13-4 in their last 17 games against a team with a winning record and 94-41 in their last 135 home games while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 series-opening games.
I get the case that could be made for the Yankees as they’re at home and King hasn’t been all that bad in a relief role. However, I’m still not sold on the Yankees or their bullpen if this is a bullpen game and the Red Sox have been playing well lately, especially Eovaldi who has gone 10-6 in his career at Yankee Stadium. I’ll side with the Red Sox in this one.
