Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles 4/8/21 - MLB Picks & Predictions

By: Lance |

Last Updated: 04/07/2021 at 10:27 PM ET

The Boston Red Sox will look to build off a sweep of the Rays when they travel on the road to Oriole Park at Camden Yards to take on the Baltimore Orioles. Boston got the bats going against the Rays, scoring 26 runs across three games and completing the sweep with a 9-2 win to improve to 3-3 on teh year. These two have already played a three-game series with the Orioles sweeping Boston at Fenway, but they followed that with back-to-back losses to the Yankees to drop to 3-2. 

The Red Sox lineup is stacked with a ton of power led by left fielder JD Martinez who has started off the year red-hot, batting .440 with 2 homeruns and 11 RBIs through just six games. Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts has also been hot to start the year, he’s batting .375 on the year but he’s driven in just two runs.

Boston will send out the left-handed Eduardo Rodriguez to make his first start of the season, he opted out last season due to COVID-19 concerns but if he can find his groove from 2019, it will be a huge boost to the Red Sox. Boston has already lost Chris Sale for the foreseeable future and with Rodriguez making 34 starts posting a 19-6 record and a 3.81 ERA, he could be a big beneficiary of the open innings.

Baltimore dominated the Red Sox on the opening week but struggled greatly against the Yankees, especially at the plate. There just isn’t a lot of talent on this Baltimore team but Cedric Mullins has gotten off to a red-hot start at the plate, batting .524 which is 2nd in the MLB right now including going 5/5 with 3 doubles in the series finale against the Red Sox.

Through their first 5 games, Baltimore is 10th in team batting average batting .254 as a team, and are averaging 4 runs per game. They’ve managed just 1 home run, the lowest in the MLB this year and outside of Mullins, nobody has been able to get much going. 

The veteran Matt Harvey will get the ball for the Orioles and making his second start of the season, Harvey pitched 4 ⅔ striking out 4 and giving up 2 runs and 6 hits in his first start against the Red Sox. He’s bounced around the league for the last four years and struggled last season making 4 starts before heading into the bullpen. He allowed 15 runs in just 11.2 innings in the shortened 2020 season last season.

Boston will be looking to avenge a tough start to their season when they were swept by the Orioles, who are expected to be among the worst teams in the MLB this season. The question-marks around how Eduardo Rodriguez will look in his first start in over a year, but the Red Sox bats are starting to heat up and coming off a 9-2 win they’re able to get on Harvey the second time they’ve seen in a week and dominate the Orioles. Final score prediction, Boston Red Sox win 6-4.

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