Part of trying to accurately predict games in the closing segment of any sports season is having to be cognizant of the motivation of teams involved. That can often be as basic as understanding which teams are fighting for the playoffs, and which aren’t. But it can also be more nuanced, too. Some teams in the playoff hunt may relish the opportunity and play well, while others crumble under the pressure. And teams with no shot may take great joy in playing the role of spoiler, gleefully working to knock a playoff-bound team off trajectory. With those elements in mind, here’s how the weekly Baseball Swarm picked tonight’s games.
One team with some mixed motivations in the final weeks of the season is the Boston Red Sox. For instance, tonight they return arm-fatigued pitching ace Chris Sale to the mound at Fenway to face the Toronto Blue Jays. Sale will be watched closely and throw on a pitch count, but even with those restrictions, Boston was a strong choice of the swarm as a pick of the night. As one swarmer put it during the session: “I like Boston’s bullpen against Toronto too.” Here’s what that strong prediction looked like.
This may show the swarm reading some team motivation into Boston tonight. With just a few more wins in the final three weeks of the season, Boston can secure home field advantage throughout the entire playoffs. That may be why even though there’s some mild dissent early on in this pick, that melts away rapidly into a consensus to take the Red Sox with a high-confidence prediction of a win.
Unanimous AI runs predictive swarms every week for MLB, the NFL and more. Want those picks delivered to your inbox?
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