First pitch: Monday, 8:05 p.m. ET
Line: Boston -115, Texas +105, Total: 11.0

The Rangers will be hoping to inch closer to the .500 mark with a win over the Red Sox on Monday.

Boston is absolutely rolling heading into Monday’s game, as the Sox have won four straight and six of their past seven. Texas, meanwhile, is struggling coming into this one, as the team has lost five of its past six. The Rangers now find themselves two games under .500, which is not where they wanted to be at this point in the season. One trend that favors Boston in this game is the fact that the Rangers are a lousy 7-18 against the money line in home games after having lost five or six of their past seven games over the past three seasons. Texas is, however, 42-30 against the money line after four or more consecutive road games over the past two seasons.

The Red Sox will be hoping to build on their 15-1 victory from Sunday, and one guy that will be feeling great coming into this game is OF Mookie Betts (.286 BA, 15 HR, 51 RBI). Betts had one of the best games of his career on Sunday, going 4-for-6 with two homers and a ridiculous eight RBI. Betts now has five multi-hit games in the past seven contests. He is seeing the ball extremely well and is finally looking like the All-Star he was a year ago. The Sox will, however, need a lot more from Rick Porcello in this game. Porcello has been awful this season, as he has already lost 10 games after dropping just four all season a year ago. It is, however, worth noting that Porcello has allowed just seven earned runs in his past 12.1 innings of work. While that might not seem great, it is an improvement for the righty. He had allowed 17 earned runs total in his previous three starts, so perhaps he is starting to figure some things out.

One guy that could definitely provide the Rangers with some offense in this game is 3B Adrian Beltre (.274 BA, 5 HR, 22 RBI). Beltre has played only 29 games this season, but he has looked pretty good thus far. It’s only a matter of time before he puts together a serious hot streak, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get the best of Porcello here. The Rangers do, however, need a solid start from Martin Perez, who is starting in place of Yu Darvish in this one. There is a huge difference between the two, as Darvish is an legitimate ace and Perez is far from it. A quality start would be big for the Rangers if Perez can turn it in.