Battle of Texas

The Houston Astros host the Texas Rangers on Monday, September 5th at Minute Maid Park. The game starts at 7:10 pm and will be the first of three games these two teams will play. These two have already played 16 games and this will be game 17. The Astros currently lead the series 12-4 and have won the last three games. The Astros head into this game with a home record of 43-20 and the Rangers have a road record of 30-36. The odds for this game are currently -165 Astros, +140 Rangers, and the over/under is set at 8.0 according to Caesars Casino & Sportsbook. New users will receive a Risk-Free Bet of up to $1250 on their first wager. When you make your first bet, if it loses, it’s on the house as Caesars will refund any losing wagers in full (up to $1250 in the form of a single-use bonus credit Plus Caesar’s is adding 1,000 Reward Credits and 1,000 Tier Credits). You must make a deposit to get the bonus! Click the link to sign up or use Promo OSBETFULL. Claim your bonus here!

The Texas Rangers are currently 58-74 and are the third seed in the AL West. Over their last 10 games, they are 2-8 and are on a seven-game losing streak. In their last series against the Boston Red Sox, they lost all games on the road. They scored 14 runs while allowing 28 runs. In this game against the Astros, Texas will start Martin Perez. Perez is 10-5 with an ERA of 2.89 and a WHIP of 1.23. Perez has played four games against the Astros and has a record of 1–2. In those games, he has an ERA of 4.50 and struck out 16 Astros batters. The Rangers rank 13th in the league for the number of hits as they have 1,098.  As a team, they also have a batting average of .244 which ranks 15th best around the league. Hitting is not their strength and neither is pitching as they rank 21st in the league for ERA with a 4.17. The Rangers have only 4 batters that have over 100 recorded hits. Interestingly, the batters not only are above 100 hits, but they are also over 120. Nate Lowe leads the team with 147 and Corey Seager is fourth with 125. After Seager, Jonah Heim ranks behind him with only 82 hits. It’s hard to win games and compete when there is a major gap in your hitters. In this game against the Astros, the Rangers are lucky to have their best pitcher take the mound but it might not be enough going against this talented Astros team.

The Houston Astros are currently 85-48, which is the second-best record in the league. They are also in first place in the AL and the AL West. Over their last 10 games, they are 7-3 but are coming off of a loss against the Los Angeles Angels. The Astros had won four straight before that loss against the Angels and two of the four wins came against the Rangers. The Astros will have Hunter Brown take the mound for them in this game. Brown will be making his debut for the Astros and has a great opportunity to make it a memorable debut against the Rangers. The Astros are a great team all around. They are a great pitching team as they rank 2nd around the league in ERA with a 2.0 and are in 2nd place for wins and losses. On the hitting side, they hold their own as they rank 16th in the league for the number of hits with 1,087. They have 6 batters with over 100 hits and Yordan Alvarez leads the team in batting average, home runs, and OBP. In this game against the Rangers, expect the Astros to try and make Brown’s first start successful. 

I think the Astros will win this game and add another win to their record. I think the Astros have been playing great baseball and will be too much for the Rangers who have been lost over their last 10 games. Perez is a great pitcher but he does have a negative record against Houston and might find himself adding another loss when this one is over. 

For our expert, Texas Rangers vs Houston Astros pick, take the over on 8.0 total runs.