The Cleveland Guardians and the Houston Astros meet in MLB action from Minute Maid Park on Monday night.
The Cleveland Guardians will look to bounce back from a 4-2 loss to the Tigers in their matchup on Sunday. Jose Ramirez leads the Guardians with 39 hits, 9 home runs and 37 RBIs along with a .283 batting average while Owen Miller has a .294 batting average with 12 doubles as well this season. Ramirez also has 8 doubles and Steven Kwan has 28 hits with 6 doubles as well as a .267 batting average this season. Ramirez has 3 triples while Andres Gimenez and Amed Rosario each have a pair of triples as well on the year. The Guardians did not have a starting pitcher announced at the time that this article was posted.
The Houston Astros will hope to build on their series win over Texas with a 5-2 win over the Rangers last time out. Michael Brantley has a team-high 40 hits with a .290 batting average while Yuli Gurriel has a team-high 14 doubles and Alex Bregman has 32 hits with 5 home runs and 23 RBIs. Yordan Alvarez has a team-high 12 home runs and 23 RBIs and Kyle Tucker has 7 home runs and a team-high 26 RBIs as well this season. Jeremy Pena also has 7 home runs and 22 RBIs of his own this season. Luis Garcia will start here and is 3-2 with a 3.35 ERA and 41 strikeouts this season.
Cleveland is 7-15 in their last 22 games as an underdog and 1-4 in their last 5 games overall while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 series-opening games. Houston is 20-6 in their last 26 games overall and 13-4 in their last 17 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 10-1 in their lat 11 games as a home favorite.
I get the reasoning for backing the Guardians here, but as good as the Guardians’ offense can be, we’ve seen them sputter here and there and while I don’t love the Houston Astros with how their offense has been lacklustre for a lot of the year, the reality here is that the Astros are playing the far better baseball right now and are not a team I want to step in front of, especially when the Guardians are my other option. Give me Houston -1.5 here.