Braves Desperate For Home Win After Hard Road Trip
The Red Sox vs Braves Betting Odds Like The Braves At Home
The Boston Red Sox will begin a two-game series against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia. While the Braves have played up to expectations with a 20-12 record, the Red Sox have certainly played better than expectations this season.
Boston is three games above .500, at 19-16. However, before the season began, the sportsbooks unanimously predicted that the Red Sox would be one of the worst MLB teams in the American League. That hasn’t been the case at all this year.
They’ll head into the first game of this series with Kutter Crawford, one of the American League’s best starters this season. Crawford is just 2-1 but has a 1.56 ERA on the year. Meanwhile, he’ll face Reynaldo Lopez of the Braves, who has a 1.50 ERA on the season.
Therefore, we should have a fun battle on our hands for the first game of this two-game series.
The Braves are currently -185 at home. Meanwhile, the total is at 8.5, with the over juiced to -120, despite both projected starters pitchers pitching at an elite level to begin the season.
Let’s break down the Red Sox vs Braves betting odds for Tuesday’s matchup between the Red Sox and Braves.
Red Sox vs Braves 
Records: Red Sox (19-16), Braves (20-12)
Day/Time:
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
Streaming: NESN, Bally Sports South
Boston’s Aggressiveness Paying Off
The Red Sox are above .500 and want to keep it that way. Therefore, Boston has had to make a bunch of pivots to their roster in the first month of the season. This comes after last season when the Red Sox were slow to change their roster. The Red Sox dealt with poor defense up the middle and had many starters injured in the previous year.
Instead of replacing the starters, the Red Sox chose to play bullpen games for most of last year. However, this year, the Red Sox learned from their mistakes. Although several MLB injuries have occurred this season, the moves they’re making are much more aggressive.
They know the only way to stay in the standings is to bring in the best MLB players and put them in a position to be successful. They never did that last year.
Ultimately, the MLB scoreboard reflects their front-office decisions this season.
Atlanta Swept in L.A.
The Los Angeles Dodgers L.Apt the Atlanta Braves in three games over the weekend, giving the Braves a 1-5 record during their six-game road trip. With these losses piling up, the Braves have lost a significant round to the Philadelphia Phillies, who keep on winning.
That said, the Braves will be fine. It’s always difficult to win on a trip from the East Coast to the West Coast. They’ll be back home against the Red Sox for this series, which should help them regain form.
Red Sox vs Braves Betting Odds For Game 1:
ML: Braves -168, O/U 9 -105/-115
Game 1
- Tuesday, 7:20 pm ET
- Kutter Crawford vs. Reynaldo Lopez
The Boston Red Sox will pitch Kutter Crawford for Game 1 of this series. Crawford has struck out more than 24% of batters while allowing just 7.9% of walks this season. The right-hander has also held teams to a .060 ISO and a wOBA of .242.
In addition, Crawford has only allowed 25.2% of fly balls and 20.7% of line drives. Both of those numbers are above average, for starters. Although Crawford hasn’t struck out righties at a high rate, he’s ultimately reduced line drives and fly balls when balls are put into play. Meanwhile, he’s also kept walks down against righties more than lefties.
On the other hand, lefties have struck out more than 30% of the time against Crawford this season. Opponents aren’t hitting many ground balls, but they’re also not finding much success, hitting a .013 ISO and a wOBA of .194 against Crawford this MLB season.
The most impressive stat from Crawford is his barrel percentage. Opponents have only hit a 6.3% barrel percentage against Crawford. Typically, a good hitter has a 10% barrel percentage or better.
But Crawford has a hard matchup on his hands against Atlanta. The Braves’ projected lineup against righties should have at least seven batters hitting an ISO of at least .183 since last season against righties.
Atlanta certainly has the better offense in this game. But how tired will Atlanta be after a week-long road trip on the West Coast? The Red Sox vs Braves betting trends haven’t favored Atlanta against the spread this year.
On the other hand, it’ll be Reynaldo Lopez for the Braves. The right-hander has elevated his game with Atlanta. He’s added 27% of strikeouts this season and has held teams to a .105 ISO and wOBA of .252 in 115 at-bats. Lopez has also limited walks to 8.7% and has held teams to 17.6% of line drives.
As a righty, he’s struggled with 14.5% of walks against lefties. But he’s still managed 55.3% of ground balls and has allowed only 10.5% of line drives to lefties this season. Still, Lopez has allowed 52.7% of hard contact. Teams just aren’t hitting Lopez well, as he’s added a 25.3% whiff percentage and has earned 12.5% of swinging strikes. Both stats are above average for starters.
Plus, while Lopez gives up more fly balls and line drives to righties, he’s also added more than 30% of strikeouts to righties and has walked only 1.9% of them.
The Red Sox’s projected lineup only has four hitters who have consistently hit for power against righties since last season: Jarren Duran, Rafael Devers, Wilyer Abreu, and Tyler O’Neill. It’s not ideal when more than half of the lineup doesn’t have consistent power in the lineup.
We all love good MLB pitching matchups, and this game should be one of them. Therefore, our MLB best bets include the Under 9 (-115) for the series’ first game.
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