The Boston Red Sox travel to Chicago today to take on the Chicago Cubs in an interleague matchup. These teams played a day game yesterday with the Cubs coming back from down 4-0 to get the win. I don’t think that will happen today though. The Red Sox should be much more focused today. The Cubs also hit lefties really well and had Rich Hill come out early with an injury. That caused the Red Sox bullpen to be overextended, and they ended up losing the lead before they could even get their best relievers in the game. Winckowski still has a very small sample size, so if the Red Sox do lose, I think it will be because he gets hit hard. However, I think he will have success tonight.
Josh Winckowski has actually been pitching really well since returning to the starting rotation going at least five innings with two runs or fewer in all three starts and picking up the win in all three starts. Alec Mills has honestly been terrible this season. He has allowed 19 ER in 17.1 IP. Only one of those appearances was at home, but that was also his worst start of the season allowing 5 ER in 1.1 IP. That should mean a lot of bullpen for a Cubs team that doesn’t have a ton of bullpen depth.
The Red Sox seemed to take their foot off the gas pedal yesterday, and it burned them. I think they will get after it tonight after losing the series in Toronto and looking at losing this series as well. The Red Sox have lost three of their last four games now, but they had won seven games in a row before that. The Cubs have been winning games lately, but they’ve been against bad teams.
I think the Red Sox lineup will absolutely feast on Alec Mills the way they’ve been hitting lately. Yesterday was one of those classic Cubs Friday afternoon games, so it could have definitely had an effect on the Red Sox. This game is a night game on a Saturday so it will definitely be rowdy in Chicago, but it shouldn’t catch the Red Sox off-guard. I like the value on the Red Sox to avoid losing their second straight series here, take the Red Sox on the road.
Red Sox -150 vs. Cubs
