Can Red Sox Steal a Win? Today's MLB Lines

This past offseason, the Boston Red Sox traded former ace Chris Sale to Atlanta and on Wednesday night Sale will face the Red Sox for the first time since the deal with his Braves, as solid home favorites on the MLB odds.

In the first game of the series, Atlanta won 4-2, a situation that Boston will try to reverse today at Truist Park and improve its position in the AL East.

MLB Line Braves -165, Red Sox +145 (total 8.5)
What´s the Score? Braves 5, Red Sox 4

Boston Red Sox Moneyline +139

The player the Red Sox got in exchange for sending Chris Sale to Atlanta in December 2023 was infielder Vaughn Grissom and he only made his Boston debut last Friday off injury as Grissom opened the season on the injured list. He finally got his first hit with the Sox on Sunday. Outfielder Rob Refsnyder started in left field in Sunday’s series finale against the Twins. He ripped an RBI double in the fourth inning, but he was replaced an inning later after experiencing discomfort in his left hamstring and is day-to-day.

The team remains without DH Masataka Yoshida, who is also on the IL. Manager Alex Cora said Yoshida is seeking a second opinion on his left thumb, which has kept him out of the lineup since April 28. Yoshida underwent an MRI on his left hand on May 1. Surgery remains a possibility for the left-handed hitting Yoshida. He had hit .275/.348/.388 (107 OPS+) with two home runs and 11 RBI over his first 24 games. The injury came at a bad time, as he had been in the process of warming up. Over his previous six games, he’d batted .533/.611/.800 with two extra-base hits.

Veteran righty Nick Pivetta (1-1) will take the mound Wednesday. Pivetta, who has been on the injured list since April 9 with a right elbow flexor strain, made a rehab start with Triple-A Worcester last Thursday and gave up four earned runs on three hits and four walks while striking out five across three innings. After walking the first two batters, Pivetta settled down and retired the next nine Lehigh Valley IronPig hitters. Pivetta, who was scheduled to toss between 60-65 pitches, then walked the first two batters in the fourth inning before being pulled by WooSox manager Chad Tracy.

“Repertoire felt good, just wasn’t throwing a ton of strikes,” said Pivetta, who threw 36 strikes and 26 balls. “But overall, health-wise, (I felt) good. I have some mechanical adjustments to work on, but we’ll be fine.”

Despite the less-than-stellar results, the Red Sox were apparently encouraged by how Pivetta felt physically in the outing and are ready to activate him. His velocity was there, maxing out at 96.4 and averaging 94.7, which was his exact fastball average in 2023. Over his first two starts in 2024 in Boston, his fastball averaged 94.1.

He had a 0.82 ERA over his first two starts of the 2024 season, striking out 13 while walking just one over 11 innings. He wants to keep that going when he returns from a flexor strain that sent him to the IL nearly a month ago. The other reason he wants to get out of the minors? He is no fan of the automatic balls and strikes system (ABS), which is now being used in Triple-A.

“I hate it,” Pivetta said. “It’s terrible and hopefully it never comes to baseball. The challenge system is fine. The strike zone is just weird. It doesn’t fit. It doesn’t match baseball.”

The Red Sox are 49-41 (.544) all-time vs. Atlanta, including 9-3 at Truist Park since it opened in 2017. The Sox own MLB’s most Interleague wins and best all-time winning percentage in Interleague games (315-223; .586).

Atlanta Braves Moneyline -196

Ahead of this series, the Braves placed pitcher Tyler Matzek on the injured list and called up lefty reliever Ray Kerr from Triple-A Gwinnett. Kerr posted a 4.33 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and a 35/9 K/BB ratio across his 27 frames with the Padres last season. He’ll add to Atlanta’s bullpen depth.

The Braves entered this series having lost five of six and scored just 14 runs in those games. Compare that to the Braves’ record-breaking offensive performance in 2023, when the fewest runs that Atlanta’s offense scored during any six-game stretch was 19. Reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. reeled off three straight multi-hit games before Sunday but went hitless with a walk in the series finale in LA. His season OPS sits at .738, well below the 1.012 mark he had in his MVP-winning season in 2023.

“We’re struggling offensively. There’s no doubt about that,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We’re not hitting on all cylinders. It happens. Guys are working hard and it’s just not translating on the field right now.”

In late December, the Braves acquired lefty pitcher Chris Sale from Boston for infielder Vaughn Grissom. Sale waived his no-trade clause to consummate the deal. The Red Sox also sent Atlanta $17 million to help offset Sale’s $27.5 million salary this year. Sale has been one of the finest pitchers of his generation and was set to reach free agency after 2024 but agreed to a two-year, $38 million contract extension from Atlanta with a club option for the 2026 season.

“I felt like this was an opportunity to put me in a situation to help myself and put [the Red Sox] in a situation to help them, too,” Sale said of approving the trade. “I felt like I kind of owed them something because the last few years haven’t quite lived up to what I wanted to be there. It was in favor to both parties.”

Sale faces his former team for the first time since the deal on Wednesday. Some of Sale’s greatest career moments occurred during his seven-year stint with the Red Sox. He finished top five in American League Cy Young Award balloting in his first two years with Boston. He also closed out the 2018 World Series with three strikeouts in a perfect ninth inning at Dodger Stadium.

Sale (4-1) picked up the win last Wednesday in a 5-2 victory over the Mariners, allowing one run on six hits over five innings. He struck out nine without walking a batter. The veteran wasn’t efficient, needing 100 pitches to record 15 outs, but Sale generated 21 swinging strikes in another dominant performance. The nine Ks were a season high, and Sale has given up three runs or less in five of his six starts to begin his Atlanta tenure.

He has pitched into the sixth inning five times and he has completed seven innings three times. He has allowed two runs or fewer in four of those outings. Sale takes a 3.44 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 42:7 K:BB through 36.2 innings into Wednesday. Sale’s slider has replaced his four-seam fastball as his primary pitch. He may never get back to being the elite strikeout artist he was nearly a decade ago.

But this season’s early results indicate he can still be a very effective pitcher who consistently induces weak contact while occasionally still racking up decent swing-and-miss numbers. Sale is attacking the zone at what would be the highest rate of his career. That means more first-pitch strikes — more than 73 percent, eighth-best in the majors — and more swings, but also a higher chase rate and more weak contact. Sale’s strikeouts are down, to a still impressive 10.3 per nine innings, but his innings are up.

“He’s been everything that was advertised, and he’s been what we expected,” Snitker said. “It’s been fun watching him.”

Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia has committed just one error this season and has compiled 4.7 defensive runs above average, making him the sixth-most valuable defender in baseball and the second-ranked shortstop behind San Francisco’s Nick Ahmed (6.1).

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Red Sox at Braves Info

When: Wednesday, 7:20 PM ET
Where: Truist Park
Pitchers (away/home): Nick Pivetta/Chris Sale
TV: MLB Extra Innings; NESN
Stream/gameday audio: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/