Texas Rangers vs. Houston Astros MLB Picks, Odds, Predictions 6/16/2021

The Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros meet in an AL West division matchup in MLB action from Minute Maid Park on Wednesday night.

The Texas Rangers will look to rebound from a 6-3 loss to the Astros on Tuesday night. Joey Gallo had a double and two RBIs while Nate Lowe added an RBI as well to cap off the scoring for Texas in the loss. Avisail Garcia added a pair of hits while Nick Solak and Willie Calhoun each had a base hit to finish off Texas’ offense as the Rangers had just six hits as a team in the losing effort. Kyle Gibson allowed one run on seven hits with three strikeouts over six innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Demarcus Evans took the loss in relief to fall to 0-2 on the year. Jordan Lyles will start here and is 2-4 with a 5.37 ERA and 57 strikeouts this season. In his career, Lyles is 1-1 with a 3.99 ERA and 16 strikeouts against Houston.

The Houston Astros will look to build on their walkoff win over the Rangers from Tuesday night. Jose Altuve went 2 for 5 with the walk-off grand slam while Carlos Correa went 2 for 3 with a solo home run. Yuli Gurriel added an RBI as well to finish off the scoring for Houston in the winning effort while Michael Brantley went 2 for 4 at the dish. Yordan Alvarez, Myles Straw and Martin Maldonado each had a base hit as well to cap off Houston’s offense as a team in the win. Lance McCullers Jr. gave up one run on three hits with three strikeouts over 4.1 innings of work, not factoring in the decision, while Ryan Pressly got the win in relief to improve to 3-1 on the year. Zack Greinke will start here and is 6-2 with a 3.68 ERA and 62 strikeouts this season. In his career, Greinke is 5-6 with a 3.04 ERA and 107 strikeouts against Texas.

Texas is 7-23 in their last 30 games overall and 0-6 in their last 6 division games while the over is 3-0-2 in their last 5 games as an underdog. Houston is 5-0 in their last 5 Wednesday games and 10-4 in their last 14 games overall while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 games as a favorite. The over is 5-1 in the lats 6 meetings between these two teams.

These rivalry games have a tendency to be tricky, but realistically, this one doesn’t feel that bad. The Astros get their staff ace in Zack Greinke on the mound for this one after taking the Rangers down in extra innings on Tuesday, and the ‘Stros are 10-4 in games started by Greinke this season. On the flipside, Jordan Lyles goes for the Rangers and while he has improved his ERA over the course of the season, he’s still not the most reliable arm and with the way the Rangers have a tendency to struggle to score runs, I’m not sure he’s a pitcher I want to back in this spot. I’ll lay the -1.5 with Houston here.