Free Pick | MLB | Saturday | April 13

Nelly’s and Bobby Dalton were both winners in MLB on Friday – play Saturday day games:

#913 Los Angeles Angels (Canning) -110 over Boston Red Sox (Criswell) 3:10 PM CT

Boston is winless at Fenway Park this season and if the 7-0 scoreboard didn’t provide enough of a contrast last night, the Angels had a 12-1 edge in at-bats with runners in scoring position last night. A healthy and productive Mike Trout improves a lot of things for the offense and the Angels are 7-6 so far this season even with dire spring training projections buried in the difficult AL West. Los Angeles has five road wins this season and Griffin Canning has much more potential than his current 8.38 ERA suggests. Canning has a career 9.3 K/9 and was mostly effective in 22 starts last season. He was hit hard in Baltimore in his first 2024 start and then allowed four runs against Boston on April 5 in his last outing. Those four runs came on only five hits for a tough luck outing in which he allowed three home runs. Canning had strong road numbers last season and Boston’s lineup has cooled off from a strong early start, now batting just .196 over the past five games with Boston losing four of the past five. Boston pitching has allowed 30 runs in the past four games and the Red Sox didn’t get an off day this week on Thursday like the Angels did to reset the bullpen. Cooper Criswell is expected to start for Boston, with only 37 innings of MLB experience and a 5.97 career ERA. Criswell made his MLB debut in 2021 with the Angels but completed only four outs before returning to the minors and has been with the Rays organization the past two years before joining the Red Sox. Criswell hasn’t seen his stuff translate to the MLB level and even in AAA his strikeout numbers have been quite modest. Boston has a 7.91 bullpen ERA in the past five games with heavy usage as the late innings should favor the Angels, while Canning is a more proven starting option even if the numbers in the early season sample don’t show it presently.