The Los Angeles Angels and the Houston Astros meet Saturday in MLB action from Minute Maid Park. This will be the third installment in a four-game series. The Astros took a three-run win in the opener, then on Friday Houston kept it up with a four-run victory. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.

Los Angeles Angels

The Angels out-hit the Astros 11-9 in the Thursday opener of this series but ended up losing 5-2. In game two Los Angeles fell behind early and couldn’t score until the eighth in a 6-2 loss. Starter Shohei Ohtani managed 6.0 innings, five earend, nine hits and a walk.

For the starter job in the Saturday game the Angels will send out Patrick Sandoval. In his 10 starts this year Sandoval is 3-4 with a 3.42 ERA and 36 Ks in 55.1 innings. Sandoval is 13-28 with a 3.65 ERA in 73 career games (66 starts).

Houston Astros

Over on the Astros’ side, they scored three runs in the fifth inning Thursday to take the lead for good. On Friday Houston out-hit the Angels 11-9 in the victory. Framber Valdez managed 7.0 clean innings in the start with five hits and a walk.

It’ll be Cristian Javier in the start for the Astros on Saturday. In his 11 starts so far Javier is 6-1 with a 2.97 ERA and 67 Ks in 63.2 innings. Javier is 26-13 with a 3.03 ERA in 89 career games (55 starts).

The Angels are 0-7 in the last seven Saturday games and 12-28 in their last 40 road games versus a team with a winning record. The over is 8-1 in LA’s last nine Saturday games.

Meanwhile, the Astros are 46-14 in the last 60 in game three of a series and 11-4 in their last 15 Saturday games. Houston is 68-30 in their last 98 versus a team with a winning record.

ANDREW’S FREE PICK

I’ll go with the Astros in this one. Over his last three starts Javier is cruising along nicely at 3-0. In that time Javier has 17.0 total innings, three earned, 10 hits and six walks. As for Sandoval, he’s got just seven earned over his last 18.1 innings but has gone 0-3 in that trio. In the Friday game Houston got a nice start from Valdez, and the pen was able to clean up despite a shaky eighth inning. I like Astros offense to have another solid performance in this one and keep the streak going.