Yankees vs. Red Sox: Picks, predictions, how to watch Friday’s game

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox square off on Friday with first pitch set for 7:10 p.m. ET. The game takes place at Fenway Park in Boston, MA and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. Nestor Cortes is scheduled to be on the mound for the Yankees, and the Red Sox will send a rookie pitcher to the hill for a third consecutive game. Connor Seabold will get the ball tonight.

The Yankees became the first team to reach 60 wins this season with their 6-5 victory at Fenway on Thursday. Josh Donaldson hit a grand slam, and Aaron Hicks followed with a solo shot to supply much of the Bronx Bombers’ offense, which was missing Aaron Judge (calf) and Anthony Rizzo (back) due to injury. Cortes was nearly untouchable through the season’s first two months before a somewhat disappointing June — 4.15 ERA through five starts. But he started July strong by allowing one run over six innings in a July 4 victory over the Guardians. Cortes’ 2.44 ERA is fifth-best in the American League.

The Red Sox (45-38) got two homers yesterday from Rafael Devers, who continued his personal ownership of Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. But it wasn’t enough to keep the Red Sox from dropping their third straight game. Boston is now 9-19 versus AL East competition this year. Before striking out four times Thursday, outfielder Jarren Duran had slashed 328/.386/.531 over 16 games since being recalled from the minors. Seabold, a third-round draft pick in 2017 who is the Red Sox’s No. 14 prospect, has permitted eight earned runs in 8.2 innings this year. However, all but one of those runs came in a 4.2-inning start against the Blue Jays on June 27.

Yankees vs. Red Sox

Pitchers: Nestor Cortes vs. Connor Seabold
First pitch: 7:10 p.m. ET
Yankees local broadcast: Amazon Prime Video
Red Sox local broadcast: NESN
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)

Odds, picks & predictions

Run Line: Yankees -1.5 (+105)
Run total: 9.5
Moneyline odds: Yankees -155, Red Sox +135

Moneyline pick: Yankees -155

Let’s see what kind of update there is today on the health of Judge and Rizzo. Both are considered day-to-day at this point. But there’s obviously still plenty of thunder in New York’s lineup to do damage versus Seabold. This should be a high-scoring game, but the Yanks will prevail over the stumbling Sox.

Player prop pick: Nestor Cortes OVER 2.5 earned runs allowed (-130)

That start in Cleveland aside, batters hit .255 against Cortes in June, a nearly 100-point jump from May. The Red Sox have handled lefties well as they rank within the top five in MLB in OPS (.780) and wRC+ (118) versus southpaws this year.

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