Boston's won 5 straight and looks nothing like a sub-.500 team right now. The Mets, fresh off firing their manager, are hoping to avoid becoming the streak's next victim.
Bush’s Picks
BOSNYM
BOSNYM
OverUnder
Best BetRed Sox
Boston's the easy pick here on the moneyline — a 5-game winning streak against a Mets team that just fired its manager and is actively selling off pieces at the deadline. The price won't offer much value given how lopsided the form gap is right now, but this is a spot to trust the hot team over the shorthanded one.
Red Sox
+Winners of 5 straight, 8 of last 10
+Contreras named to Home Run Derby field
+Interim manager Tracy has team surging
−Rotation gutted: Crochet, Houck, Oviedo, Suarez all out
−Contreras (foot) banged up, day-to-day
Mets
+Bullpen top-10 in ERA despite injuries
+Raley, Minter have been reliable in relief
+New interim manager could spark a reset
−39-54, one of MLB's worst records
−Already selling at deadline, traded Peterson
−Semien out through July, lineup depth thin
Neither team has an announced starter for Sunday's series finale yet, so the pitching matchup card will fill in once rotations firm up. What's not TBD is the direction each club is trending — Boston's arrow is pointing straight up, New York's is still finding its footing under a new voice in the dugout.
The Red Sox have been getting it done despite a starting rotation that's basically been gutted — Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck, Johan Oviedo, Kutter Crawford and now Ranger Suarez and Connelly Early are all on the shelf. Willson Contreras has carried the offense and just made the Home Run Derby field, though he's day-to-day with a foot issue after banging up the lineup all series against the White Sox. The Mets, meanwhile, are working through a front-office reset — Andy Green is running the show on an interim basis after Carlos Mendoza got let go, and the club has already started selling at the deadline, shipping David Peterson to the Cubs.
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1:40 PM ET
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BOS Red Sox
NYM Mets
None of that offseason-in-July noise changes what's happening on the field: Boston's playing its best baseball of the season, and New York is still trying to figure out who it is under a new manager with half its bullpen on the 60-day IL.
Chad Tracy took over this Red Sox team in late April after a 10-17 start under Alex Cora, and it's been a slow build to this point — 5 wins in a row now, sweeps of the Angels and White Sox, and a club that's clawed back into wild-card shouting distance. That's remarkable given how many arms are out, but it also means length from whoever starts Sunday matters more than usual, with a taxed pen picking up whatever's left.
Boston Red Sox
Jul 11?@ Mets—
Jul 10?@ Mets—
New York Mets
Jul 11?vs Red Sox—
Jul 10?vs Red Sox—
Recent form.
New York's story is messier. A 3-14 blowout loss to Atlanta earlier this month and a 16-12 shootout loss to the Royals bookend a stretch where the Mets just haven't been able to find consistency, and at 39-54 they're one of the worse teams in baseball over the last calendar year. The bullpen has actually held up — Devin Williams, Brooks Raley and Luke Weaver have kept it respectable even with Reed Garrett, Dedniel Nunez and Clay Holmes all out — but a lineup missing Marcus Semien and thinning depth up the middle isn't doing the pitching staff many favors.
Boston Red Sox
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
New York Mets
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
First pitch Sunday is 1:40 PM ET at Citi Field, capping a weekend series where Boston's the clearly hotter team walking in. The Mets have shown they can still scrap — three of their last five games have been one-run or extra-inning-type battles — but riding a 5-game skid into a series against a team playing loose baseball is a tough spot for a club that just changed managers midseason.
