Houston Astros (75-52) vs. Texas Rangers (44-83)
August 27, 2021 8:05 pm EDT
The Line: Texas Rangers +170 / Houston Astros -238; Over/Under: 8.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers meet in an AL West division matchup in MLB action from Globe Life Field on Friday night.
The Houston Astros will look to build off of a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals from Wednesday’s action. Martin Maldonado and Yordan Alvarez each had a solo home run while Alex Bregman had two hits with a double and an RBI. Michael Brantley, Jake Meyers and Aledmys Diaz each had RBIs as well to round out Texas’ scoring as a team in the win. Yuli Gurriel added a double and Kyle Tucker had a pair of hits as well to finish off Houston’s offense as a team in the win. Lance McCullers Jr. gave up four runs on five hits while walking four and striking out seven over 6.2 innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Kendall Graveman got the win in relief to improve to 5-0 on the year. Jake Odorizzi will start here and is 6-6 with a 4.52 ERA and 70 strikeouts this season.
The Texas Rangers will try to rebound from a 10-6 loss at the hands of the Cleveland Indians from Thursday. Nick Solak had a solo home run and two RBIs while DJ Peters had two hits with a solo home run. Jose Trevino had two hits with a double and an RBI while Andy Ibanez had two hits with a double as well. Isiah Kiner-Falefa added a base knock as well to finish off Texas’ offense as a team in the loss. Jordan Lyles took the loss, falling to 6-11 on the year after allowing eight runs on nine hits while striking out three over 3.2 innings of work. Glenn Otto is tabbed to make his major league debut in Friday’s matchup.
Houston is 51-18 in their last 69 games following an off day and 35-16 in their last 51 division games while the over is 3-1-1 in their last 5 Friday games. Texas is 19-41 in their last 60 games against a team with a winning record and 22-55 in their last 77 games overall while the over is 12-4 in their last 16 Friday games.
I’m not sure what to make of Glenn Otto in his major league debut, and I’m sure that the Rangers won’t give him much of a leash to wind himself up with. However, the Astros are not the team you’d want to face in your major league debut I’m thinking and while I’m not president of the Jake Odorizzi fan club, he’s still pitched fairly well for the Astros for much of the year despite what the record and ERA would suggest and I think he leads the Astros to a win on the -1.5 run line over a Rangers team that I’m not trusting to put up consistent offense for much of anything.
