Saturday, July 25, Boston, Fenway Park; 1:35 p.m. ET
Baltimore Orioles Odds
The Orioles are hoping for much more out of No. 2 starter Alex Cobb than Tommy Milone could muster on Friday night. Milone opened the game and the floodgates in an 11-run loss as the stand-in Game 1 starter. Cobb didn’t move up in the rotation when All-Star John Means went on the injured list with arm fatigue.
Cobb, 32, joined the Orioles in 2018 and has historically struggled with some of the players in the middle of the Boston lineup – none more than J.D. Martinez (.563 average, five doubles, one home run).
Boston Red Sox odds
Even the most trident of Boston Red Sox fans might not have believed Opening Day starter Nathan Eovaldi’s proclamation that the team’s offense was very much still a juggernaut without Mookie Betts, the former AL MVP who now dons Dodger Blue. But if Friday night was any indication – a 13-2 whitewash of the Orioles – Eovaldi might be onto something.
JD Martinez and new face Kevin Pillar drove in three runs apiece and the offense appeared to be balanced, top to bottom. Well, now the words of Xander Bogaerts are put to the test as he said the Red Sox still have one of the best rotations in baseball – without Chris Sale (elbow) and Rick Porcello, who signed with the Mets. Martin Perez will pitch for the first time as a member of the Red Sox and he was slated to be the team’s fifth starter before the start of spring training.