MLB Weekend Preview
Posted on September 2, 2009 | 2:58 AM ET Filed under:In the waning weeks of this season the AL Wild Card race has evolved into a two-horse sprint to the finish, with the Boston Red Sox leading the Texas Rangers by a couple of lengths down the stretch. This weekend, the Sox will try to put a little more distance between themselves and the Rangers when they host the Tampa Bay Rays for three games. Meanwhile, Texas will try to make up ground on Boston when they host the Seattle Mariners for three games in Arlington.
Boston dropped a game to the White Sox in Chicago on Monday 5-1, and has now lost four of its last six games. The Red Sox now head home for a quick two-game set vs. Baltimore Tuesday and Wednesday before Tampa comes to town.
TB opened an 11-game road trip Monday in the Bronx in dismal fashion, dropping a day/night doubleheader by a combined score of 15-2 to stretch their losing streak to six games.
The Rangers got rained out in Cleveland on Monday, so they will play a doubleheader with the Indians on Tuesday. Texas just dropped two of three games to the Orioles in Baltimore, but has won four of its last six games to stay within spitting distance of the BoSox.
Seattle just split four games with the A's in Oakland over the weekend, losing the last two games, but is 9-5 over the last couple of weeks.
So going into Tuesday's play, Boston leads the AL Wild Card race by 2.5 games over the Rangers, and by 7.5 games over both Tampa and the Mariners.
The Rangers lead the season series with the Mariners this year nine games to four. And the totals have trended toward the unders by an 8-5 margin in those games.
The Rays are six games over .500 on the season overall, at 72-66, but nine games under water at just 29-38 on the room service circuit. However, Tampa is also 9-6 vs. Boston so far this season.
As of Tuesday morning Oddsmaker.com is listing Boston at -500 to win the AL Wild Card race. Texas is getting +300, Tampa +1,000, and Seattle +5,000.
Oddsmaker is also listing the Red Sox as +400 co-second choices, along with the Los Angeles Angels, to win the AL pennant this fall, behind only the Yankees at +100. The Rangers are getting +1,000 on Oddsmaker.com's updated AL championship betting board, the Rays +7,500, and the Mariners +30,000 (300/1).
And Boston is listed at +600 to win the World Series, with Texas getting +1,800, Tampa +15,000, and Seattle +50,000.
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