Boston’s Wright resumes big year vs. Royals
At 71-56, the Red Sox aren’t exactly treading water in the American League East. Yet they couldn’t be much happier about the return of an indispensable hurler tonight.
Boston welcomes back knuckleballer Steven Wright for its series opener against Kansas City, with a 7:10 p.m. ET first pitch at Fenway Park. Online sports book Bovada.lv gives the host team odds of -168 triumph, whereas the Royals are considered +148 underdogs. The over/under run figure sits at 9.5.
In a highly unusual turn of events, Wright’s Cy Young-worthy campaign was suspended nearly three weeks ago. The 13-game winner suffered a right shoulder injury diving back into second base during a Red Sox-Dodgers interleague showdown. Having recently thrown a successful bullpen session in St. Petersburg, however, he’s ready to spring back into action in a few hours. Wright holds an 11-3 record with a 3.71 ERA in 22 career outings in Beantown.
Ned Yost answers with Ian Kennedy, who continues to throw like an ace himself. The veteran righty is 2-0 with a 0.79 ERA so far this month. Most recently, Kennedy twirled eight shutout innings vs. Minnesota.
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The Royals have won 17 of their past 23 contests. There’s still much work to do, though, if the defending World Series champs covet another October run. We actually like them to prevail here, mostly because Wright’s bound to endure some early command issues. Bank on Kennedy to snare his 84th career W.
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