{"id":14834,"date":"2011-04-11T16:36:57","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T21:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14834"},"modified":"2011-04-11T16:36:57","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T21:36:57","slug":"dice-k-time-tampa-bay-rays-vs-boston-red-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/dice-k-time-tampa-bay-rays-vs-boston-red-sox-14834\/","title":{"rendered":"“Dice K” Time: Tampa Bay Rays Vs. Boston Red Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Rays (1-8) at Boston Red Sox (2-7)<\/strong>
\nApril 11, 2011 at 7:10 PM EST, TV: ESPN<\/strong>
\nOpening Runline:\u00a0 BOS -1.5 +135, TAM +1.5 -155<\/strong>
\nCurrent Runline:\u00a0 BOS -1.5 +125, TAM +1.5 -145<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 BOS -155, TAM +135<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 BOS -151, TAM +141<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 9<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 9.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 TAM- J. Hellickson, BOS- D. Matsuzaka<\/p>\n

\"\"
Matsuzaka is projected to improve his ERA by 0.47 this year according to Baseball Prospectus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What a matchup this is:\u00a0 The two favorites to win the AL East are currently occupying the cellar, with Boston only one game ahead of the Rays for the worst record in the division.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford recently switched sides of the fence and now plays for the division rival Red Sox.\u00a0 Crawford is the Tampa franchise leader in hits, runs, RBIs, doubles, triples, and stolen bases.\u00a0 The face of the franchise signed for seven years with the Red Sox.\u00a0 The addition of Crawford, as well as Adrian Gonzalez, was supposed to make Boston contend for a Pennant.\u00a0 Right now they’re not even part of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the season even starts you tell in your mind \u2018World Series, postseason, all that stuff\u2019 with Boston,\u201d Crawford said after signing with the Red Sox in December. \u201cYou know it actually might happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, things have not been so great though.\u00a0 The Red Sox began the year 0-6 and then finally won 2 of 3 against the Yankees.\u00a0 And though the Rays may miss Crawford, he hasn’t made a difference for Boston yet.\u00a0 He’s batting .132 on the year and went 0 for 5 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Rays plight, however, is pretty bad too.\u00a0 The Rays have scored only 11 runs through their eight losses and lost badly in a 6-1 defeat to the White Sox on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf something goes wrong for a brief moment why would I want to all of a sudden change my attitude?\u201d Rays manager Joe Maddon asked. \u201cI really believe in what we do. I believe in the guys in that room. I believe it\u2019s gonna turn. It\u2019s really more glaring when it happens early in the season, which it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson lost his season opener on Wednesday against the LA Angels.\u00a0 He gave up 3 runs in 5 2\/3rds innings in a 5-1 Rays loss.\u00a0 His last appearance with Boston he allowed three runs in 1 2\/3rds innings.\u00a0 Hellickson’s PECOTA projections are a 9-6 record with a 3.55 ERA.<\/p>\n

“Dice K” Daisake Matsuzaka will take the mound for the Red Sox.\u00a0 He gave up 3 runs in 5 innings in Wednesday’s 8-4 loss against the Cleveland Indians.\u00a0 Against Tampa Bay, Matsuzaka has not been so successful, with a 2-6 record and 5.09 ERA.\u00a0 PECOTA expects an 11-9 record with a 4.22 ERA.\u00a0 Matsuzaka has not been the same since 2008 when he had a 18-3 record and 2.90 ERA, as one of the premier pitchers in the league.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay is 1-9 SU in their last 10 games and the total has gone UNDER in 19 of their last 22 games.\u00a0 The total has also gone UNDER in 4 of their last 5 on the road and the total has gone OVER in 8 of their last 12 against the Boston Red Sox.\u00a0 Tampa is 7-3 SU in their last 10 against Boston and the total has gone OVER In 5 of Tampa Bay’s last 5 games on the road in Boston.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 6-3 SU in their last 9 games on the road against the Red Sox.<\/p>\n

Boston is 2-7 SU in their last 9 games and the total has gone OVER In 9 of Boston’s last 13 games.\u00a0 The total has also gone OVER in 5 of their last 6 at home and they are 1-4 SU In their last 5 at home.\u00a0 Boston is 3-7 SU in their last 10 against Tampa and the total has gone OVER In 8 of the last 12 games between the teams.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER In 5 of Boston’s last 5 games at home against the Rays and the Red Sox are 3-6 SU in their last 9 games at home against the Rays.<\/p>\n

HOT HITTERS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

TAMPA BAY: <\/strong><\/p>\n

BJ Upton:\u00a0 .290 BA (9 of 31), 4 RBIs, 1 SB, 5 runs<\/strong><\/p>\n

BOSTON:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dustin Pedroia: .400 BA (14 of 35), 1 HR, 5 RBI, 3 doubles, .571 Slugging Pct<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Ortiz: .257 BA (9 of 35), 2 HR, 6 RBI, 2 doubles, .486 Slugging Pct.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boston has been bad historically against Tampa, but the Rays are without Evan Longoria and the Red Sox also just took their face of the franchise in Carl Crawford.\u00a0 The Rays supporting players have not been getting the job done but with Matsuzaka on the mound, whom the Rays have had success, the Red Sox are going to have a problem.\u00a0 If Matsuzaka falters, he may be replaced early.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Rays (1-8) at Boston Red Sox (2-7) April 11, 2011 at 7:10 PM EST, TV: ESPN Opening Runline:\u00a0 BOS -1.5 +135, TAM +1.5 -155 Current Runline:\u00a0 BOS -1.5 +125, TAM +1.5 -145 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 BOS -155, TAM +135 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 BOS -151, TAM +141 Opening Total:\u00a0 9 Current Total:\u00a0 9.5 SP:\u00a0 TAM- J. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[69,150],"class_list":["post-14834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14836,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834\/revisions\/14836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}