Old Foes Renew Rivalry – Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees

BetOnline MLB betting odds:  PICK’EM (-110 each way), Total 10

Southpaw Jon Lester (1-2, 5.40 ERA) will take the mound for the Red Sox on Monday, and he will be opposed by Phil Hughes of the Yankees (1-0, 0.00 ERA), who was very impressive last time out.

Here are some of the MLB Baseball betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

• BOS has won 13 of its last 17 games
• BOS has lost four of its last six games
• BOS has played 13 of its last 19 games OVER the total
• BOS has lost four of its last six road games
• BOS has played seven of its last ten road games OVER the total
• NY has won four of its last five games
• NY has played its last five games OVER the total
• NY has won five of its last six home games
• NY has played four of its last five home games OVER the total

In the HEAD-TO-HEAD sports betting trends:

• BOS has won four of the last last five meetings
• Four of the last five meetings have gone UNDER the total
• Four of the last six meetings in New York have gone OVER the total

The Yankees took two out of three against the Angels over the weekend and nearly completed the sweep. On Sunday, a three ninth inning, triggered by a Jorge Posada home run, was not enough to overcome a big deficit. The final was 8-4, and C.C. Sabathia was somewhat less than stellar on the mound, giving up four runs in seven innings. Sabathia has not gotten off to a big start, and that is a bit of a concern, but it was nothing compared to how Taiwanese righty Chien-Ming Wang got out of the gate, with an ERA of 34.50 before going on the disabled list.

New York hopes that Phil Hughes can help to fill that void. Hughes, who was one of a trio of promising pitchers the Yanks got very excited about in 2007 (Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy were the others), was a big disappointment last year before getting shipped out. After some strong starts in Scranton this season, Hughes was inserted into the rotation and made his first start against the Tigers on April 28, blowing away the Yankee staff with his six-inning shutout performance in which he allowed just two hits and struck out six Detroit hitters. Now it is time for a follow-up.

The Red Sox were expecting Jon Lester to progress to the next level after compiling a 20-6 record the last two seasons, with a 3.21 ERA in 2008. Things have been a bit rough for him this season, and even though the Sox have won the last three games Lester has started, he was touched up for five runs in six innings against the Tribe five days ago.

The Yankees are making things a bit tighter in the American league East, as they are just a game and a half behind Boston, so they could potentially overtake the Red Sox with a two-game sweep. Boston ran into its nemesis, the Tampa Bay Rays, and just lost three of four games to them. Of course, everyone forgets about the first-place team, the Toronto Blue Jays, who are sporting an 18-9 record.

If you really believe in Phil Hughes, you may want to move in the Yankees’ direction. We like to recognize that the Red Sox have one of the very best bullpens in the majors, while the Yankees have one of the very worst. Lester is not half-bad against New York in his brief career (2-0, 3.34 ERA) so we are going to move with the Beantowners in the BetOnline American League baseball online betting odds.

JAY’S PLAY:  BOSTON (-110)

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