Boston Red Sox AT Cleveland Indians
April 6, 2011 at 7:05 PM EST
Runline: Bos -1.5 (+105), Cle +1.5 (-125)
Opening Moneyline:  Bos -155 / Cle +135
Current Moneyline:  Bos -156 / Cle +146
Opening Total: 9
Current Total: 9

For all the World Series aspirations, the Red Sox aren’t looking even like a playoff team at this point.  Struggling along at 0-4, they are still favored by Vegas Oddsmakers, but even manager Terry Francona is frustrated at this point.  “It’s not a lot of fun,” said Francona. “But I don’t think anyone is going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got to play the game right and things will work out.”

The season began with Boston being unable to stop the Rangers from scoring, giving up 21 runs in the first two games.  The offense was fair, but a team can’t win regularly giving up that many runs.

Now the hitting has fallen off.  The Red Sox had only 4 hits off Josh Tomlin and are batting a woeful .186 on the season, worse than the 0-5 Astros.  Boston’s big signing Carl Crawford is struggling since getting his first two hits and is now 2 of 15 from the plate, with 6 of those 13 outs having been strikeouts.  He also has no steals so far.  “We need some kind of spark right now,” Crawford said. “It’s a little surprising, frustrating. We’ve got high hopes for this season.”

Tonight the Red Sox do have one good thing going for them:  Diasuke Matsuzaka.  “Dice K” went 9-6 last season with a 4.69 ERA.  Coming off of a loss last season, Matsuzaka was 5-1.  Even better, against the Indians last year he gave up only one run over 16 innings to take both starts and continue his dominance over the Indians.  His 4-1 record & 2.34 ERA against Cleveland has been testament to how much Cleveland players struggle against Matsuzaka and the other top right handed pitchers in the league.  Matsuzaka’s PECOTA projections are 11-9 with a 4.22 ERA, a marked improvement in ERA over last season, but still nowhere near the 18-3 2.90 ERA dominance of 2008.

Depite only getting 5 hits Tuesday, Cleveland managed to win, aided by Orlando Cabrera, Jack Hannahan and Carlos Santana driving in runs.  “For us every team is the same,” Cabrera said. “Certainly they have great players over there and it seems like they’re off to a slow start. We didn’t play different. We played hard, scored runs and played good defense, and hopefully we can keep doing that.”

Some betting trends:

The total has gone OVER in 6 of Boston’s last 8 games and they are 1-4 SU in their last 5 games.  Boston is 0-5 SU in their last 5 on the road and they are 2-5 SU in their last 7 games against the Cleveland Indians.  Boston is also 17-8 SU in their last 25 against the Indians.

Cleveland is 2-4 SU in their last 6 games and they are 9-4 SU in their last 13 games.  The total has gone UNDER In 12 of their last 17 games at home and they are 8-2 SU in their last 10 at home.  Cleveland is 8-17 SU in their last 25 against the Red Sox and they are 5-2 SU in their last 7 games against Boston.

Vegas and most baseball pundits realize that Matsuzaka makes Boston an easy favorite in this game.  Despite the fact that the Red Sox are winless, having a stud pitcher on the mound that has a good track record against the team in question is a formula for snapping out of their slump.