MLB Baseball Odds: Tampa Bay at Boston

James Shields and the Rays take on the Red Sox today. (AP Images)"]

When the Tampa Bay Rays line up along the third-base line at Fenway Park for the traditional opening day introductions today, they will do so as the defending AL East champions and not the laughingstock of the league.

The Rays and the Red Sox are scheduled to open the 2009 season this afternoon, though rain is in the forecast and could push Game 1 back to an off-day Tuesday. Josh Beckett is making his fourth opening day start overall and first for Boston. He is expected to face James Shields, which is the same matchup from Game 6 of last year’s AL championship series.

The Rays played their first 10 openers with low expectations but this season they enter the season as the defending AL champs. Now they start the year as +1500 favorites to win it all.

Can the +130 underdog Rays get off to a perfect start against their division rivals?

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