Rangers vs Astros Baseball Picks
The first two games of this series have featured shutouts but the Rangers were on the wrong end of it last night. As a result they have slid down to .500 and to fourth place in the division above only Houston.
Texas Rangers (20-20) vs. Houston Astros (13-27)
Wednesday May 14
Minute Maid Park – Houston, TX
8:10PM
Probable Pitchers
TEX: Nick Tepesch
HOU: Scott Feldman
Moneyline: Houston -105, Texas -105
Total: 9
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ATS Matchup Insight | CP Insider Gambling Preview
Texas
There could be some after effects from last night as well as not only did they lose starter Matt Harrison did not even complete 2 innings. The bullpen worked the remainder so they might be a little gassed.
Texas is just trying to maintain touch with Oakland and L.A. while they get healthy.
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Beyond Yu Darvish the Rangers are really struggling to find arms for the rotation. For Wednesday they have recalled Nick Tepesch who was not very good last year over 17 starts.
However, he was killing it in AAA so Texas is hoping that he can help bridge the gap as they have 4 starters on the disabled list.
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Tepesch didn’t really spend any time at AAA on the way up so maybe starting the season there was a necessary development step.
Houston
The Astros got an absolute gem of a performance last night from Dallas Keuchel – a 7 hit shutout.
It was their first shutout victory of the season and based on what we have seen so far from this club it is an outlier performance. What is not an outlier is the performance of diminutive second baseman Jose Altuve. His average is up over .300 at the moment and he put pressure on the defense with his speed.
He is the only regular with an average over .250 though for this team that as a team hits a depressing .227.
Scott Feldman has started the season with some of the best pitching of his career…and then he got hurt. He is one start back from a DL stint which was a reasonably good outing against Baltimore.
He has one start this season against the Rangers and it was his best outing of the season as he pitched 7 scoreless innings, giving up just a couple of hits.
The Texas lineup has yet to hit its stride this season and in this pitching matchup he may actually have an advantage.
Houston started the season with back to back wins but since that time they have only achieved that feat twice so betting against them in this situation seems the smart way to go.
The great thing is that you can actually get a decent return thanks to the weak pitching offering from Texas.
Total prediction: Over
Score prediction: Texas 7 – Houston 3
