San Francisco at Boston

I was on Boston to win outright two days ago in this series, and it cashed easily, the start of a stretch where the Red Sox have taken both games from San Francisco heading into the finale this afternoon. The Giants have lost three straight and sit 2-8 over their last ten games, the profile of a lineup that has stopped generating much offense down the stretch of a lost season. Matt Wilkinson takes the ball for San Francisco just a few turns into his big-league career, still hunting for his first earned run allowed at this level. Boston counters with Jake Bennett, a steady 3.46 ERA arm all year who has already beaten this Giants club once in this series. Two clubs playing out very different stretches, but the throughline holds: a young arm still finding his footing against one of the league's coldest lineups, opposite a veteran who has done nothing but get outs against this same opponent. That combination points to a lower-scoring finish than the total suggests. The UNDER is the play in Boston this afternoon.