00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - The Washington Nationals as a home underdog
00:05 against the Boston Red Sox.
00:07 James Paxton will have the ball here for Boston today.
00:10 Boston, I just want to quickly acknowledge,
00:12 their pricing is interesting.
00:14 When you look right now at the American League here,
00:16 it is 16 to one on the Seattle Mariners.
00:19 In front of them, the Toronto Blue Jays at plus 9.50,
00:24 as well as the Minnesota Twins at plus 9.50.
00:27 The notion for the Twins, nobody thinks they're good,
00:29 but they're supposed to in the central.
00:31 The notion for Toronto is they're that last wildcard team
00:35 right now because that spot belonged,
00:36 the top two belonged to Tampa Bay and Houston,
00:39 and those teams are still booked incredibly strong.
00:42 Seattle's at 16 to one, they're that team
00:44 that would be knocking on the door
00:46 when you look at the wildcard race two back.
00:49 Boston is just three back, Donnie.
00:51 When you consider that the Yankees are six and a half
00:53 and the Angels are eight,
00:55 the fact that the Red Sox are at 65 to one
00:59 says that the books don't think that this team is legit.
01:02 We have them though favored here today against Washington.
01:05 What do you make of Austin going into this game?
01:08 - Yeah, by the way, like the whole Boston talk there,
01:10 I haven't looked really at their schedule.
01:11 And sometimes that has a lot to do with like,
01:13 hey man, look at who they're back loaded with,
01:14 who they're gonna have to jump over
01:15 and play down the stretch.
01:16 That could be a key indicator,
01:18 but I don't think anybody really has talked about Boston
01:20 all season long as an actual contender.
01:22 Now from a spot where you can pick them
01:23 on a day-to-day basis or a team total and RBI,
01:26 yeah, they make some sense.
01:26 But at the front end of the rotation,
01:28 it is a little bit lacking here.
01:29 Bullpen all the way through in a lineup
01:31 that sometimes doesn't perform to what it's supposed to do.
01:34 Yesterday I had a team total on them.
01:35 Hey man, take a look at that,
01:36 five runs before five innings, they didn't score again.
01:39 And I lost on a five and a half team total yesterday
01:41 at a little bit of plus money.
01:42 They'll get back to it today against the Nationals.
01:44 Mackenzie Gore is a decent young pitcher here.
01:47 But if we're looking at those 30 pitchers I talked about,
01:49 he's 18th on the card today, 4.37 XFIP,
01:53 not terrible, not great.
01:54 He's going up against a lineup today
01:56 that you can throw a lot of right-handed batters at,
01:58 and they're going to do that today.
02:00 And Mackenzie Gore, for what it's worth, Kevin,
02:01 over the past 30 days, 91 batters,
02:03 he struggled a little bit against right-handers,
02:06 a 272 ISO power number and a 355 weighted on base percentage.
02:10 If we're lining him up from the opposite side,
02:12 Paxton on the mound, he also, 72 batters, Kevin,
02:15 that he's faced from the right side.
02:17 He's a left-handed pitcher as well.
02:18 He struggled, 246 ISO, 376 weighted on base percentage.
02:23 And looking at the lineup, get this,
02:24 if you're looking from a total perspective,
02:26 I actually like this game to go over.
02:28 82 degrees, wind blowing out the right field.
02:30 Nationals, we'll see if they can get it together
02:32 at the plate today.
02:33 Maybe they can, because take a look at this, Kevin.
02:35 Maness is 3.37, Ruiz 4.70, Garrett 4.20,
02:39 Vargas 4.28, Adams 5.49, Chavis 3.80.
02:43 These guys have hit right-handed, excuse me,
02:45 left-handed pitching, well as right-handed batters
02:47 over the past 30 days.
02:48 Let's go over the total today.
02:50 I think it makes sense.
02:51 (upbeat music)
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