2020-09-16 20:10:00 EDT
The Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros meet in an AL West division matchup in MLB action from Minute Maid Park on Wednesday.
The Texas Rangers will look to rebound after a 4-1 loss to the Astros on Tuesday. Ronald Guzman accounted for the lone RBI for Texas in the loss while Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Nick Solak and Rougned Odor each had base hits as none of Texas’ four hits went for extra bases in the losing effort. Kyle Cody allowed one earned run on four hits over three innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Nick Goody took the loss in relief, falling to 0-1 on the year. Kyle Gibson will start here and is 1-5 with a 6.14 ERA and 41 strikeouts this season. In his career, Gibson is 3-2 with a 3.54 ERA against the Astros.
The Houston Astros will look to build on their victory over the Rangers from Tuesday night. Alex Bregman went 2 for 3 with two RBIs while Martin Maldonado went 2 for 4 with a solo home run and a double and George Springer had a solo homer as well for the Astros. Michael Brantley added a double while Josh Reddick, Yuli Gurriel and Kyle Tucker all had base hits for the Astros in the victory. Jose Urquidy allowed one run on three hits while striking out seven over seven innings of work, picking up the win to improve to 1-1 on the year. Ryan Pressly closed out the deal for his 10th save of the season. Lance McCullers Jr. will start here and is 3-2 with a 5.79 ERA and 32 strikeouts this season. In his career, McCullers Jr. is 1-4 with a 5.61 ERA and 52 strikeouts against Texas.
Texas is 19-44 in their last 63 road games and 7-21 in their last 28 games overall while the over is 8-2-1 in their last 11 games as a road underdog. Houston is 53-21 in their last 74 home games and 70-33 in their last 103 games within the division while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games as a favorite. Texas is 3-13 in the last 16 meetings between these two teams.
I get that McCullers isn’t the easiest to stomach as he’s been dealing with a nagging injury, but the fact is that the Astros need to keep winning to keep their playoff hopes in tact and as much as Texas had been providing value in an underdog role, the Rangers have just been god awful on the road and I just think all of this mixes into a bad combination for Texas here. I’ll side with Houston on the run line in this one.
