Bettors ponder Ortiz-Bryant showdown
David Ortiz’s farewell to the All-Star Game is sure to make for a memorable scene tonight. Will the Petco Park crowd get to see Boston’s basher hold off one of the National League’s finest, though?
Handicappers want to put Papi in direct competition with Chicago’s Kris Bryant this evening. To that end, online sports book Bovada.lv gives Ortiz odds of -120 to compile more hits, runs and RBIs. The 2015 NL Rookie of the Year, on the other hand, represents a -110 underdog.
As the visiting club’s No. 3 batter, Bryant strides to the dish first. Thanks to American League manager Ned Yost’s openness with the media roughly 24 hours ago, we know that starting hurler Chris Sale stands to be followed by Corey Kluber, Cole Hamels, Aaron Sanchez and Jose Quintana. That’s a total of three lefties through the first five or so innings, and Bryant bashes southpaws to the tune of a .298 clip.
Less certainty exists on the Ortiz front. Are we talking about a victory lap here or perhaps a string of plate appearances? Does Terry Collins burn somebody like relatively early? Can the Bartolo Colons and Fernando Rodneys of the world hope to hold down No. 34 in a tight spot? The variables abound, truly.
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Beantown’s icon clearly adores the Midsummer Classic spotlight, boasting a .313 average with a homer and three RBIs and eight such contests. His preliminary protection (Red Sox teammate Xander Bogaerts and Kansas City’s Eric Hosmer) even seems preferable to Bryant’s middle-of-the-order partners. Still, we sense that Yost views the evening as primarily a celebratory occasion – especially as it relates to Ortiz. On the flip side, Collins won’t hesitate to keep running his exuberant third baseman out there.
TUESDAY MLB FREE PICK: KRIS BRYANT -110