World Series odds update: Red Sox surging past Yankees in title market

We're just over halfway through this MLB campaign, and oddsmakers have made some of the largest adjustments yet as teams prepare for the back half of the season. Is it too early to believe in hot stretches from preseason long shots, or is now the best time to buy?

Here are the updated World Series odds from theScore Bet, along with the biggest risers and fallers from our most recent update in June:

Trending up

Boston Red Sox (+1000)

Oddsmakers are finally buying into the Red Sox, who entered the season as 70-1 long shots but have seen their odds move more dramatically than any team on the board from that point until now.

Boston sputtered a bit in the week before the All-Star break but still won 11 of its last 16 games to clearly establish itself as a contender ahead of the second half. The bats are legit - the Red Sox rank fourth in OPS (.761) and have scored the third-most runs in MLB - but a top-10 rotation thus far should have bettors feeling good about this club.

Milwaukee Brewers (+1400)

It's about time the Brewers are priced as contenders after a strong start to the season. Milwaukee opened at 50-1 and was still dealing at 25-1 in June, but a team with the bona fide pitching of this group deserves more love in the market.

Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff form the best 1-2 punch in the majors, and the Brewers' bullpen can go toe-to-toe with any in the National League. The lineup is still a question mark, but it's performed above-average since the start of June. Milwaukee was my preseason pick to win it all, and there's still value at this price.

Houston Astros (+600)

Love them or hate them, the Astros are firmly contenders after posting the second-best record in the American League through the All-Star break. Houston has won 70% of its games since May 30 - easily the best mark in that stretch - with an elite lineup and a pitching staff that's weathered MLB's crackdown on foreign substances with the fourth-best ERA (3.24) since June 1.

This price feels a little short relative to a juggernaut like the Dodgers (+350), but the 'Stros have the pitching depth and stable of bats to make good on it, as we've seen in recent years.

Trending down

New York Yankees (+1800)

Moving from 11-1 to 18-1 may not seem like a major adjustment at this point in the season. But for a team that opened the campaign at 5-1, it's frankly stunning to see the Yankees priced as the 10th most likely team to win it all.

That's what happens when you flirt with a .500 record, as this club has done all year. The Bronx Bombers are still hitting bombs, ranking 10th in home runs (114) and first in hard-hit rate (42.6%), and their bullpen leads MLB in fWAR (4.5). Yet an inconsistent rotation has left the Yankees scraping for wins.

New York's title hopes could rest on the right arm of Gerrit Cole, who is firmly the AL Cy Young favorite after his sterling shutout performance Saturday. If he pitches like that down the stretch and not like he had in his previous six starts, this team will be the contender we expected before the season started.

Minnesota Twins (+25000)

Oddsmakers have finally decided to pull the plug on the Twins, pricing them in the range where teams go to die at this point in the campaign. It's the appropriate call after Minnesota's 39-50 start to the season, which is tied for the seventh-worst record by any team as of Tuesday.

It's rare to see a club enter the campaign at 18-1 and fall so far down the oddsboard at nearly the halfway mark, but that speaks to how poorly this team has played on both sides, saddled by injuries and outright poor performance. Don't waste your money here, even at such long odds.

C Jackson Cowart is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on Twitter (@CJacksonCowart) or email him at cjackson.cowart@thescore.com.