Spencer Strider vs. Ranger Suarez highlights Braves-Red Sox series opener with under 8.5 runs pick

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. We are now back to the grind and don’t have another day off until Flag Day (unless you get Juneteenth off). Today will be the second game for most of these teams in their series, but this is a series opener for the two in this matchup. We have a really good pitching matchup today between the Braves and the Red Sox.

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The Atlanta Braves are one of the best teams in baseball and are almost 20 games above .500. They enter today with a 19-8 road record, and they are 36-18 overall. The offense has been great this season, but they have struggled the last couple of games with hitting, scoring just one run, and losing both games. The Braves are averaging 5.2 runs per game this year, behind only one team in the league — one you wouldn’t guess if you didn’t look it up (the Nationals).

The Braves have one of their better pitchers going tonight with Spencer Strider taking the hill. He is 2-0 for the year with a 3.00 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. He has only four starts for the season, and three of them have been on the road. He has allowed six earned runs over 15.2 innings on the road this year. He does seem to have regained his strikeout form. For the year, he has 27 strikeouts in 21 innings. He did face the Red Sox earlier this year, going 5.1 innings and allowing just one earned run. Overall, the Braves are 6-for-26 with six strikeouts.

The Boston Red Sox are one of the more disappointing teams in baseball. It isn’t that the team is terrible. They are eight games below .500, and they’ve been terrible at home, going 8-17 to this point in the year. Statistically, they are decent, but it isn’t translating into victories for them. The team is hitting .240, which is almost exactly average in the league. However, they are dead last in the league in runs scored.

Boston has lost the past three games, all at home, but they at least did score some runs in those games. They lost each game by just one or two runs. The sad thing is that they scored about the same amount of runs in the three games as they’ve averaged for the season. Looking to get some run support in this game is Ranger Suarez, a guy the Braves should be familiar with from his time with the Phillies. Suarez is 2-2 for the season with a 2.40 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. He has allowed 13 earned runs in 48.2 innings this year, and 12 of those runs have come in 13 innings of work. Braves hitters are batting .239 against him.

No one stands out as a great hitter against Suarez, so it is possible the Braves could struggle against him. However, Michael Harris II has struggled against him and is worthy of a look at him going under 0.5 hits. I am taking the under 8.5 runs in this game, though. Strider looks strong since coming back, and Suarez has been very reliable outside of those three games. Give me the under.

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