The Washington Nationals are just 3-5 in their last eight games against American League opponents. The Nationals will try to earn better results on Tuesday night against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Washington Nationals vs. Boston Red Sox betting preview, matchup odds
Two World Series favorites square off Tuesday in an interleague matchup between the Washington Nationals and the Boston Red Sox.
Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
Washington is a -104 underdog against the Red Sox on Tuesday, according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com, with Boston going off at -116 at home. The Red Sox won the first game in this series 9-4 on Monday.
Entering the season with the best pitching staff in baseball, the Washington Nationals opened as the betting favorite on the odds to win the World Series. With the exception of Monday's blowout loss, the staff has held up its end of the deal with one of the best ERAs in all of baseball.
But on offense, Washington has mustered up just 17 runs in seven games, averaging 2.4 runs per game to stumble out of the gate to a 2-5 record. The Nationals will need to find some offense if they want to meet their lofty goals in 2015.
Boston has not had any trouble lighting up the scoreboard so far in 2015, racking up 41 runs through its first seven games for an average of 5.9 runs per game. With what projects out to be one of the best offenses in baseball, Boston's plan for overcoming a mediocre pitching staff this season is just to outhit the opposition, and it has worked so far with a 5-2 record.
Tuesday's total is set at eight runs for the Nationals vs. Red Sox betting matchup. As expected, these two teams have been on opposite sides of the OVER/UNDER spectrum with Boston trending towards the OVER at 6-1 and Washington trending towards the UNDER at 4-2-1.
In addition to being a great series between two World Series contenders, this Washington at Boston set is particularly compelling as it matches strength against strength in Washington's pitching vs. Boston's hitting. Boston took round one on Monday by clobbering Jordan Zimmermann, but now the Red Sox heavy hitters face Washington's staff ace in Stephen Strasburg on Tuesday. Justin Masterson takes the mound for Boston.
