The AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays (56-38) open a post-All-Star break series at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox (46-48) with a day/night doubleheader. Winners of three of their final five games heading into the break, Tampa Bay enters the series atop the division with a three-game lead over the Yankees. The Red Sox are baseball’s hottest team, riding a nine-game winning streak and posting a remarkable 14-2 record over their last 16 games.
Tampa Bay’s strength this season has been its consistency and balance. Led by Nick Martinez (8-2, 2.65 ERA) their pitching ranks sixth in the American League with an ERA of 3.80. At the plate, the Rays lead the AL with a .259 batting average. Yandy Diaz leads the American League with a .322 average. Boston’s bats have come alive over the last month after just a miserable start to the season. As surprising as their lack of success at the plate had been, their starting pitching has been even more of a surprise considering who sits on the injured list: Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suarez, Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck, and most recently, Connelly Early. Their team ERA is 3.59 which is second only to the Yankees in the American League.
Griffin Jax takes the ball for the Rays. He does so with a solid 3.47 ERA and has shown good strikeout ability, averaging a strikeout per inning (71 strikeouts in 70 innings). Jake Bennett will be on the bump for Boston. The rookie has allowed just three home runs this season in 47.2 innings.
Key matchup: Yandy Díaz and Jonathan Aranda against the left-handed Bennett.
Diamond Note: Willson Contreras will serve the final game of his five-game suspension in this afternoon’s game.
Lets dive into tonight’s matchup and find a sweat or two.
We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch first pitch, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.
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Game Details and How to Watch: Rays vs. Red Sox
- Date: Friday, July 17, 2026
- Time: 1:35PM EST
- Site: Fenway Park
- City: Boston, MA
- Network/Streaming: MLB.TV, NESN, Rays.TV
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The Latest Odds: Rays vs. Red Sox
The latest odds as of Friday courtesy of DraftKings:
- Moneyline: Tampa Bay Rays (+104), Boston Red Sox (-126),
- Spread: Rays +1.5 (-198), Red Sox -1.5 (+162)
- Total: 8.0 runs
Probable Starting Pitchers and their Stats: Rays vs. Red Sox for July 17
- Red Sox: Jake Bennett
Season Totals: 47.2 IP, 4-3, 2.64 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 35K, 8 BB - Rays: Griffin Jax
Season Totals: 70.0 IP, 5-6, 3.47 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 71K, 25 BB
Who’s Hot? Who’s Not! Rays vs. Red Sox
- Wilyer Abreu is 3-7 (.429) in his career against Griffin Jax
- Jarren Duran is 1-16 over his last 5 games
- Masataka Yoshida has hit safely in 7 of his last 8 games (11-26)
- Ceddanne Rafaela has hit safely in 9 of his last 10 games (13-45)
- Junior Caminero is hitting just 8-45 (.178) in July
- Cedric Mullins is 2-31 over his last 9 games
- Yandy Diaz went 0-2 in the All-Star game but is 10-26 over his last 6 regular season games
- Nick Fortes is 3-4 with a pair of doubles in his career against Jake Bennett
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Top Betting Trends & Insights: Rays vs. Red Sox
- The Rays are 57-37 on the Run Line this season
- The Red Sox are 43-51 on the Run Line this season
- The OVER has cashed 42 times in Tampa’s 94 games this season (42-47-5)
- The OVER has cashed 42 times in Boston’s 94 games this season (42-48-4)
Expert picks & predictions: Rays vs. Red Sox
Rotoworld Bet Best Bet
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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts.
Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.
Here are the best bets our model is projecting for today’s first game between the Rays and the Red Sox:
- Moneyline: Rotoworld Bet is recommending a play on the Red Sox on the Moneyline.
- Spread: Rotoworld Bet is staying away from a play on the Run Line.
- Total: Rotoworld Bet is leaning towards a play on the Game Total OVER 8.0.
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