Houston vs Texas Pro Baseball Lines Guide

Posted by Eric Williams on Wednesday,April 20, 2016 4:05, EDT in

After dropping five of their last seven games heading into Game 2 of their three-game series on Wednesday night, the Houston Astros will turn to staff ace Dallas Keuchel to help them get back on track when they square off against the semi-hot Texas Rangers. Now, let’s find out which team is the right MLB betting lines pick to win and cash in!

How To Bet The Astros @ Rangers MLB Odds, TV & Game Info

When: Thursday, April 21 – 8:05 PM EST
Where: Globe Life Park in Arlington, Arlington, Texas
TV: ROOT Sports+, MLBN
Radio: Astros and Rangers
TV Stream: ROOTSports+
Probable Starters: Astros: Dallas Keuchel (2-1) vs Rangers: A.J. Griffin (1-0)
MLB Odds: TBA

Why Bet the Houston Astros

The best reason to bet on the Astros in this contest is that they have their staff ace going for them. After walking a whopping 10 batters over 12.2 innings in his first two starts, Dallas Keuchel tossed eight scoreless innings on Friday to lead Houston to a hard-fought 1-0 win over Detroit. For the season, Keuchel has struck out 17 batters while walking 11 in three starts spanning 20.2 innings.

The bad news is that Keuchel was smacked senseless in allowing nine runs and 11 hits in just 4.2 innings against Texas in last start in Arlington, on Sept. 16.

Why Bet the Texas Rangers

Heading into Wednesday night, the Rangers had won two straight, three of four and seven of its last 10 games overall. Huge right-hander A.J. Griffin has been rock-solid in not allowing more than three earned runs in any of his two starts and limited Seattle to one run on five innings of a 4-2 loss last Wednesday. For the season, Griffin has allowed just nine hits in 11.0 combined innings while striking out six and walking six.

Griffin is 3-0 with a 4.88 ERA in four career starts against the Astros, but is facing them for the first time since Sept. 6, 2013.

Expert Pick & Final Score Prediction

The Texas Rangers might look like the right pick to win this matchup at home, but I like the Houston Astros to get the win because of sheer desperation if nothing else. The Astros are blistering 36-15 in Dallas Keuchel’s last 51 starts and 19-7 in the right-hander’s last 26 starts against teams from the AL West.

While Texas has gone 31-15 in its last 46 home games, the Rangers are an inexplicable 8-22 in their last 30 games against a team with a winning percentage under .400 percent. It’s going to be fairly close, but Houston wins.

My final score prediction: Houston 4 Texas 2