“1 UNIT” NATIONAL-TV TOTAL (Red Sox at Rays UNDER 8’ in a 7:08 eastern start broadcast on ESPN-----------Beckett versus Garza): Much to my personal dismay, these two teams failed to stay below the total last night in what turned out to be an 8-4 slugfest. During last year’s magical run to the World Series, Tampa Bay thrived on “pitching and defense” but shoddy play in the field led to 3 different “unearned” runs by the Red Sox on Tuesday. With the Rays now down by 6 games in the American League Wildcard chase, they will have to play much better defense this evening against the squad directly ahead of them in the American League East standings. It was earlier this season at Tampa Tropicana Field that Matt Garza through a ONE HIT gem against the mighty Red Sox and his ERA in the past four attempts against Boston (1.88) is extremely low. For those of you familiar with Garza has is driven by “emotion” and will definitely be psyched to perform tonight in front of the ESPN cameras. Tampa’s offense just set a club record with 43 homeruns hit during the month of August, but as mentioned earlier this team in general wins with “pitching and defense”. I will admit that Boston has averaged around 7 runs per game in the past couple of weeks and that Josh Beckett’s ERA the past three starts (9.82) has been a disaster. The bottom line is that Beckett who has given up 10 homers in those three assignments has a lot to prove both to the Red Sox and the entire country tonight. Beckett also needs to prove that he can handle Tampa Bay who earlier this year at Tropicana Field lit him up to the tune of 7 runs. Getting back to tonight’s Tampa Bay starting pitcher, Matt Garza just happens to be an eye opening 14-5 UNDER the total this season when cast as a favorite!
OC Dooley (fp) 9/2
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