MLB: Texas Rangers vs Boston Red Sox | 16 May, 2:35 AM (PST)

[Mary C]

POTENTIAL STARTING LINEUPS: 

TEXAS RANGERS: 

C | Mitch Garver 

FB | Nate Lowe 

SB | Marcus Semien 

S | Corey Seager 

TB | Andy Ibanez 

LF | Brad Miller 

CF | Adolis Garcia 

RF | Kole Calhoun 

DH | Nick Solak 

 

BOSTON RED SOX: 

C | Christian Vazquez 

FB | Bobby Dalbec 

SB | Trevor Story 

S | Xander Bogaerts 

TB | Rafael Devers 

LF | Alex Verdugo 

CF | Enrique Hernandez 

RF | Jackie Bradley Jr. 

DH | J.D. Martinez 

It’s American League East against West in a Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers game this Monday at the Globe Life Field. Playing home, the Rangers have that advantage along with a slightly higher ranking across the MLB leaderboard. However, that doesn’t mean the Red Sox is going down without a fight.  

 

Starting with the home team itself, the Texas Rangers. The Rangers are 4th in the American League West and 22nd in the entire league with 13-17. Weirdly enough for the team, they fare better playing away than home as they have a 7-7 record away and 6-10 home. Onto the opposing team, the Boston Red Sox aren’t doing much better. 5th in the American League East and 26th in the entire league, the team has 11-20. The Boston team also plays better away with 7-11 compared to their home games with 4-9. It looks like the Rangers’ home advantage isn’t much of an advantage at all then, but that’s just one factor out of a few. 

 

It’s expected that Garrett Whitlock will be Boston’s pitcher and Jon Gray for Texas. With this alone, Boston has a generous advantage. If we look at the numbers, especially for earned run average (ERA) and walks and hits per inning (WHIP), Whitlock proves to be superior. For ERAs, anything less than 4.00 is regarded as acceptable while anything less than 3.00 is excellent. A pitcher with an ERA of less than 2.00 is considered outstanding. On the flip side, anything above 5.00 is dismal. For WHIPs, a good measure for pitchers of Major League level is about 1.00. Anything under 1.00 is exceptional. Whitlock has a 2.19 ERA and 0.93 WHIP while Gray has a 5.51 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. As the numbers speak for themselves, we hope the Rangers reconsider their pick if they want a better chance against Red Sox. 

 

Though they’re the underdog on the board, we’re expecting the Boston Red Sox to win in a relatively close game. Their team stats show they’re in a good position, even better than the Rangers though they play higher on the board. The Texas Rangers will definitely show their teeth in this, but Whitlock seems to be in his element at the moment whereas Gray is not. It’s Boston’s game, and we’re excited to see Whitlock unmask his potential yet again.  

 

2:35 AM, Monday, 16 May 2022. Globe Life Field, Arlington, TX.