Boston Red Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds September 20 Betting Preview

The Cincinnati Reds will host the Boston Red Sox for a quick two-game series starting Tuesday night at 6:40 p.m. Both of these teams will most likely miss the playoffs as they are both in the bottom half of their respective divisions, with the season winding down quickly in the upcoming weeks.

The Reds, who are 58-89, are 28.5 games behind the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals. They are 2-8 in their last 10 matchups, which includes their last series, which was against the Cardinals. 

The Reds managed to win one of those three games to salvage something before this series against the Red Sox.

Boston has a better record at 71-75 but still sit in last in their division which is 17 games behind their rivals, the New York Yankees who have the second-best record in baseball at 88-58. 

The Red Sox are 4-6 in their last ten and were able to manage to win two out of three games in their past series at home against the Kansas City Royals.

Let’s look at the first of this quick two-game matchup between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox.

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Odds

The Boston Red Sox hold the 1.5 run advantage in game one of this series with odds of (+135) at that spread. The Reds have the home-field advantage but are still expected to be the underdogs with odds of (-164) to cover the 1.5 run difference. For the moneyline, the Reds Sox and the Reds have odds of (-115) and (+102) respectively.

For the over/under for total runs scored in the game, the line is set at 8.5 total runs. The odds for the over and under are (-106) and (-115) respectively.

Pitching Matchup

Nick Lodolo of the Cincinnati Reds will take on Brayan Bello of the Boston Sox. The lefty, Lodolo, has the better record and ERA at 4-6 and 3.81. He also has accrued 113 strikeouts on the season. Bello has a record of 1-6 thus far with an ERA of 5.10 and 42 strikeouts this season.

Lodolo picked up the loss in his last outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates last week. He went 6.1 innings, giving up six hits and three runs. He also added eleven strikeouts which is his second game in a row with that many strikeouts.

Bello also picked up a loss in his last appearance against the Yankees, where he went five innings, giving up six hits and no runs. He walked one batter and struck out six in last week’s effort.

Expected Outcome

Even though the Reds have the home-field advantage, they are only 29-43 at home this year. The Red Sox, on the other hand, have a better record than that on the road at 34-38. I am rolling with the Red Sox because although both teams are out of the playoff conversation, Boston has much more talent than the team that the Reds are putting on the field.

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