Take Boston on the -1.5 run line Saturday against the Athletics. The starting pitching disparity matters first and foremost. Jake Bennett is Boston’s scheduled starter against Jump on Saturday. Bennett will have a 7-4 record and 2.90 ERA entering Saturday. Jump, by way of comparison, enters with a 4.59 ERA. Bennett has emerged as one of Boston’s most reliable starters, posting a 1.40 ERA in his previous six starts leading up to July 28 at Oakland. He even proved against the Dodgers in his most recent start that he can match up with a much more dangerous lineup than what he’ll encounter Saturday. Bennett took the win as Boston defeated Los Angeles 8-4, moving to 7-4 on the season with that 2.90 ERA. If Bennett can deliver Boston another six quality innings, Oakland won’t come close to scoring enough runs against the Red Sox. Boston obliterated Oakland 13-1 on Friday night, smacking 15 hits while Oakland mustered just two. Boston improved to nine straight wins with that performance while Oakland fell to nine straight losses. Prior to this series Oakland had already gone an otherworldly 30-5 over Boston’s last 35 games, so Oakland wasn’t going to sneak up on anyone offensively on Friday. Oakland’s fall from grace has been equally as brutal if not more so. The Athletics came into this series having gone just 7-32 since June 19 (worst record in MLB during that span) and losing 12 consecutive series heading into Friday. They’ll also be without key injuries moving forward including Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers and Zack Gelof, all of whom will remove valuable bats from an already anemic lineup. Those absences matter a ton against a southpaw like Bennett who keeps runners off the bases and simply does not grant opponents many free runs. Jump deserves some respect based on his previous meeting with Boston, but I view Saturday’s contest much differently. Boston has the better starter, has scored at least five runs in Boston’s last seven games, gets home-field advantage, is beating teams by wide margins and is facing an injury depleted Oakland team that’s playing its best pitcher of the season during a nine-game losing streak. Jim's Play: 960. Red Sox -1.5 Runs

I’m taking the UNDER in Saturday’s Angels-Marlins matchup, primarily because of the starting pitching matchup. Los Angeles will start Walbert Urena with righty Sandy Alcantara taking the bump for the Marlins. Urena has quietly developed into one of the Angels’ most reliable starters. The 22-year-old is 6-7 with a 2.70 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 88 strikeouts in 93 1/3 innings. He’s also been tough to score against lately; Urena entered his last start with four straight outings of allowing one earned run or fewer, and followed that up by allowing three hits over six scoreless innings against Milwaukee. Miami has shown an ability to put runners on base, but he works with upper-90s heat and mixing speeds makes Urena hard to square up. He’s been able to hit 100- plus mph with his four-seamer while also utilizing a changeup and sweeper to keep hitters off his fastball. The ability to mix speeds is key against a Marlins lineup that showed Friday it can put up hits but won’t necessarily post big innings. But honestly, the biggest reason to buy into the Under is Alcantara himself. Across 156 2/3 innings, his full-season line now reads 12-6 with a 3.68 ERA and 1.20 WHIP. He has been much better as of late, too. Over his last seven starts, Sandy owns a 2.89 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. Most encouraging about Alcantara is what he has done in each of his last two starts. He tossed seven scoreless innings against Philadelphia then came back and tossed six scoreless innings against the Mets. That’s 13 straight scoreless innings, allowing only eight hits and three walks. Following that performance, Alcantara was named NL Player of the Week. Now he gets an Angels offense averaging just 4.3 runs per game and a .701 team OPS. I like Alcantara to give Miami six or seven solid innings while holding Los Angeles to two or three runs of its own. Miami opened the series with a 4-3 win on Friday, which brought about an encouraging Under signal of its own. The teams mustered just seven runs combined despite Miami posting 12 hits. Marlins stranded 13 baserunners on their way to losing and the starting pitchers on both sides held Los Angeles to just one run over four innings apiece. We get significant upgrades from both starters on Saturday. The trend I’m envisioning here is Alcantara and Urena stifling both offenses for the first five or six innings, forcing hitters to put up multiple hits if they want to tack on runs. Alcantara has been otherworldly as of late, Urena has given up one earned run or fewer in five consecutive starts and Friday’s game served as evidence Miami can go through long stretches without capitalizing on baserunners. Jim's Play: 969. Angels/Marlins UNDER (MLB Total of the Week)