Baltimore Orioles vs. Houston Astros MLB Picks, Odds, Predictions 6/30/2021

The Baltimore Orioles and the Houston Astros meet in MLB action from Minute Maid Park on Wednesday night.

The Baltimore Orioles will look to build on their 13-3 walloping of the Astros on Tuesday. Austin Hays and Maikel Franco each had three RBIs with Franco logging a pair of doubles. Austin Wynns, Ramon Urias and Cedric Mullins each had two RBIs with Wynns and Urias each logging a pair of hits with a two-run home run and Mullins going 4 for 5 at the dish with a solo home run and a double. Anthony Santander had a solo home run to round out the scoring for Baltimore in the win while Domingo Leyba had a base hit as well in the win for Baltimore. Alexander Wells got the win in relief to improve to 1-0 while Dillon Tate closed out the last 2.2 innings for his first save. Matt Harvey will start here and is 3-9 with a 7.54 ERA and 55 strikeouts this season. In his career, Harvey is 0-3 with a 12.79 ERA and 5 strikeouts against Houston.

The Houston Astros will look to bounce back from their loss to the Orioles on Tuesday. Abraham Toro accounted for all three Houston RBIs in the losing effort while Yordan Alvarez and Martin Maldonado each had a pair of base hits. Kyle Tucker and Michael Brantley each had a base hit as well to cap off Houston’s offense as the Astros cranked out just seven hits as a team in the losing effort with none of the seven going for extra bases. Ralph Garza Jr. took the loss in relief, falling to 0-2 on the year as a result. Luis Garcia will start here and is 6-4 with a 2.83 ERA and 85 strikeouts this season. This will be Garcia’s first career start against Baltimore.

Baltimore is 15-38 in their last 53 road games and 12-40 in their last 52 games overall while the over is 12-5-2 in their last 19 games against a team with a winning record. Houston is 21-7 in their last 28 games overall and 6-2 in their last 8 games against the AL East while the over is 6-0 in their last 6 games as a home favorite. The over is 5-1 in the last 6 meetings between these two teams.

I can understand the case to be made for Baltimore as there’s a ton of plus money here with the team that’s been better in the first two games of the series. However, I’m not trying to back Matt Harvey as he looks like the Harvey that struggled to find major league work in the last couple of years and not the Dark Knight that aced the Mets’ pitching staff a few years ago. Luis Garcia isn’t a world-beater, but I think he and the Astros’ batting order does enough to get the win on the run line here.