Free Pick | MLB | Weds. | July 8

Check out Nelly’s TOTAL for Wednesday – 2-0-1 since Sunday!

#915 Boston Red Sox (Bennett) +105 over Chicago White Sox (Martin) 6:40 PM CT

Boston won 8-1 last night, posting an 11-4 edge in hits as the Red Sox beat the White Sox in the series opener. Boston has endured a disappointing season, but the current stretch of play has been perhaps the best run of the season with Boston 12-5 since June 19. The offense has been productive with at least five runs scored in four straight games and 12 of those past 17 games on the 12-5 run. Chicago leads the AL Central and will be an interesting team to watch as the trade deadline approaches. Since posting an 18-10 month of May, the White Sox have a losing record since June 1 and the pitching staff has struggled so far in July, allowing 31 runs in a 2-4 start to the month. Davis Martin has enjoyed a great season but there are red flags in the numbers with an extraordinarily low home run rate that is about half of his career average, even as he has a lower groundball rate than his past two seasons. Martin has been inconsistent in recent weeks with a pair of disastrous outings in June and while he has a great home track record this season, most of his innings have been on the road. Jake Bennett has a 3.10 ERA with a 3.14 FIP and he has shown exceptional command at the big league level and is a strong groundball producer. Bennett has good road splits in a small sample and has turned in three consecutive quality starts even while pitching in Denver and against the Yankees in two of those games. Chicago is batting .172 with 1.7 runs per nine vs. left-handers in the past five games while the Boston bullpen has strong numbers in July including a 1.18 WHIP in the past five games in contrast to a 1.58 WHIP for Chicago in that recent run.