MLB Picks

Houston Astros vs. Arizona Diamondbacks – 9/18/20 MLB Pick, Odds, and Prediction


2020-09-18 20:10:00 EDT

The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Houston Astros meet in MLB action from Minute Maid Park on Friday.

The Arizona Diamondbacks will look to rebound after a 7-3 loss to the Angels in their last game. Nick Ahmed had a double and an RBI while Christian Walker added a 2 for 4 day at the dish with an RBI and Josh VanMeter added an RBI as well to finish off the scoring for Arizona in the loss. Kole Calhoun had a double and Pavin Smith went 2 for 4 while David Peralta added a base hit as well to cap off Arizona’s offense as a team in the defeat. Alex Young took the loss after allowing six runs on eight hits while striking out a pair over 2.2 innings of work. Zac Gallen starts here and is 1-2 with a 3.15 ERA and 66 strikeouts this season. This will be Gallen’s second career start against Houston.

The Houston Astros will try to build on a 2-1 win over the Rangers in their last outing. Kyle Tucker’s two run shot in the 2nd inning was all the scoring the Astros would end up needing, while George Springer, Michael Brantley and Carlos Correa all had base hits as the Astros cranked out just four hits as a team in the winning effort. Framber Valdez got the win to improve to 4-3 on the year after allowing one run on four hits while striking out 11 over 6.1 innings of work. Brooks Raley got the save, his 1st of the year by closing out the 9th. Zack Greinke starts here and is 3-2 with a 3.77 ERA and 53 strikeouts this season. In his career, Greinke is 7-3 with a 3.29 ERA and 84 strikeouts against Arizona.

Arizona is 10-25 in their last 35 road games and 6-21 in their last 27 games overall while the over is 4-0-1 in their last 5 games overall. Houston is 55-22 in their last 77 home games and 55-27 in their last 82 games against the NL West while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games as a home favorite.

The plus money with Gallen is tempting as he’s been rock solid since joining the majors last year, but we’ve never seen him have a bad start like he did last time up, meaning we’ve never seen how he’s bounced back and it may have been a while since Gallen’s been in that position, even if he was in the minors. Greinke continues to lead the Astros’ staff with his veteran presence and I just think that the Astros are the better and more trustworthy team. Here, especially when it comes to consistent offense as well down the stretch. The Astros also need these wins to bolster playoff positioning and since I think the D-Backs aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, I’ll side with Houston on the run line to get the job done in this one.

Chris Ruffolo's Free Pick: Houston -1.5

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Chris Ruffolo

Chris joined the Sports Chat Place team in August 2016 and has a proven system that combines multiple analytical and situational statistics and trends to give out thousands of winning picks over the last three years with winning records across all of the top leagues, Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg

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