The Washington Nationals and Houston Astros meet Thursday in MLB action at Minute Maid Park. Let’s preview this game and give out a pick and prediction.

Washington Nationals Betting Preview

The Washington Nationals have scored 11 runs in their last 3 games and 4 or more runs in 6 of their last 11 games. The Nationals have won 5 of their last 8 games when scoring 4 or more runs. Joey Meneses leads the Nationals with 77 hits and 32 RBI, while Lane Thomas and Luis Garcia have combined for 135 hits and 59 RBI. MacKenzie Gore gets the ball, and he is 3-5 with a 4.04 ERA and 83 strikeouts this season. This will be Gore’s first career game against the Astros.

Houston Astros Betting Preview

The Houston Astros have scored 11 runs in their last 3 games and 4 or more runs in 5 of their last 10 games. The Astros have won 12 of their last 14 games when scoring 4 or more runs. Kyle Tucker leads the Astros with 65 hits and 39 RBI, while Mauricio Dubon and Alex Bregman have combined for 127 hits and 54 RBI. Cristian Javier gets the ball, and he is 7-1 with a 3.13 ERA and 74 strikeouts this season. This will be Javier’s second career game against the Nationals.

Trends

The Nationals are 13-39 in their last 52 Thursday games and 1-4 in their last 5 road games. The Astros are 41-12 in their last 53 Thursday games and 47-16 in their last 63 during game 3 of a series. The under is 4-1 in Nationals last 5 overall. The under is 5-2 in Astros last 7 overall. The Nationals are 12-3 in the last 15 meetings in Houston and 1-4 in the last 5 meetings.

Randy’s Pick

The Houston Astros are not only the better team and hard to bet against at home, but there’s a clear pitching edge here between MacKenzie Gore and Cristian Javier. Also, the Nats haven’t won with Gore on the mound since April 26 while the Astros are 10-3 this season when Javier pitches. It’s hard to bet against the Astros, and I’ll take the RL for max betting value.