Houston Astros (48-33) vs. Cleveland Indians (42-35)
July 2, 2021 7:10 pm EDT
The Line: Cleveland Indians +164 / Houston Astros -178; Over/Under: -9.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Houston Astros and the Cleveland Indians meet in MLB action from Progressive Field on Friday night.
The Houston Astros will look to build on their 7-2 win over the Indians in their last matchup. Jose Altuve had a grand slam while Yordan Alvarez and Michael Brantley each had a solo home run with Brantley going 3 for 5 with a double as well. Yuli Gurriel had an RBI as well to finish off the scoring for the Astros in the win while Myles Straw had a double and Abraham Toro added a base hit as well to finish off the offense for Houston in the win. Framber Valdez got the win to improve to 5-1 on the year after allowing two runs on four hits while striking out six over seven innings of work. Lance McCullers Jr. will start here and is 5-1 with a 2.94 ERA and 73 strikeouts this season. In his career, McCullers Jr. is 1-2 with a 6.61 ERA and 15 strikeouts against Cleveland.
The Cleveland Indians will try to bounce back from their loss at the hands of the Astros last time out. Harold Ramirez had a double and an RBI while Yu Chang had two hits and Jose Ramirez had a double. Eddie Rosario and Amed Rosario each had a base hit as well to finish off Cleveland’s offense as the Tribe had just six hits as a team in the losing effort. J.C. Mejia took the loss, falling to 1-3 on the year after allowing six earned runs on five hits while striking out three over four innings of work. Sam Hentges will start here and is 1-2 with a 7.32 ERA and 38 strikeouts this season. This will be Hentges’ first career start against Houston.
Houston is 6-2 in their last 8 road games and 4-0 in their last 4 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 15-5-1 in their last 21 Friday games. Cleveland is 9-3 in their last 12 home games and 1-4 in their last 5 games overall and over is 6-1-1 in their last 8 game two matchups. Houston is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings between these two teams.
I just don’t know what to make of the starting pitching matchup, but what I do know is that the Astros are the better team here and I trust Lance McCullers Jr. in a starting role more than I do Sam Hentges. I’m not a fan of laying juice on the road, but I think this is a spot where Hentges gets torched by a good Astros team and McCullers Jr. leads the Astros to a win here.
