The Boston Red Sox World Series Trophies on display at Fenway Park before the Victory Parade around Boston on October 31, 2018. (Omar Rawlings/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The defending champion Red Sox have won their division each of the last three years, but the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has the rival Yankees as favorites to win the A-L East this season. The line's set at 96-and-a-half wins - two more than the Sox.
The reason? Boston won a team-record 108 games. The oddsmakers are expecting regression.
Does Steve Pearce have any thoughts on that?
"I mean, whatever, if that's what it is, it is what it is!" he said. "We don't play the game on paper, we play it on the field, so we'll see what happens there."
Does he feel disrespected at all?
"Well, I mean, the Yankees are a good team, but we're a good team, too," Pearce said. "We bring it out every single day, and we'll let the analysts and the other people say what they wanna say, but the game's played on the field."
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WBZ's Jonny Miller asked Christian Vazquez about the prediction as well and got a more matter of fact response.
"They're wrong," Vazquez said. "We're gonna win again. Repeat."
If you're wondering, Yanks and Astros are co-favorites to win the World Series at 6-1, while the Sox and Dodgers have 7-1 odds.
WBZ NewsRadio's Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) reports