The Rays have been absolutely feasting on lefties of late and get Sale in this one. He was mostly good in his return from Tommy John surgery, but he's faltered lately, posting a 5.87 ERA in his last two starts. Rays rookie Shane Baz has made only three career starts but he's looked the part and is facing a compromised Red Sox lineup. Plus, the Rays' deep bullpen has only throw four innings since Sunday. Kevin Cash will get what he needs from Baz and then go into mixing and matching mode. The Rays are the far superior team here and will prove it again.

I'll back the team that managed to steal home last night. The Red Sox couldn't muster up a single run against the Rays in yesterday's contest. Today's pitching matchup does favor the Sox a bit more than Thursday's, but I don't trust Chris Sale in his recent form and Shane Baz has been solid in his first few big league starts. The Rays have a well built lineup and a strong bullpen that still has its best arms available today. Take the home team to win again.

It's perhaps boring to keep picking favorites in the Division Series and the Sox are starting ace Chris Sale, but he didn't look quite as dominant at the end of the regular season and two of Boston's best hitters are banged up in JD Martinez and Rafael Devers. I expect both to play in Game 2 but neither is clearly close to 100 percent. Martinez has missed the past two with an ankle but reportedly will gut it out for this one. Devers injured his arm in the wild-card game and could be seen wincing while swinging in Game 1 vs. the Rays. This might be a sweep.

Shane Baz is making just his fourth career start although he did pitch well in his first three. Chris Sale will be making just his 8th career postseason appearance and 5th career postseason start so despite being the veteran he doesn’t have a ton of playoff experience. He also has a 5.76 ERA in the postseason. The Rays had the 3rd highest wOBA in the league against lefties since the start of September and they crushed lefty Eduardo Rodriguez early in Thursday’s game. Chris Sale made 3 starts on the road this season and went 0-1 with a 4.61 ERA. He also faced the Rays twice, pitching a quality start and getting blown up. Sale wasn’t getting deep into games either this season, and the Red Sox bullpen is very questionable while the Rays can just go to theirs whenever they need. The Rays are now 8-3 at home against the Red Sox this season and they have won 12 of the last 16 matchups straight up. Take the Rays.