An AL West battle in Sacramento takes place in the MLB’s late slate on Monday night as the Houston Astros travel to battle the Athletics. Both of these teams enter the contest hot with the Astros 8-2 across their last 10 games and the A’s sitting 6-4 over the same span, so this presents a quality matchup between division rivals.
Here’s an Athletics vs. Astros prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for tonight’s action.
Athletics vs. Astros prediction, preview
Athletics
The Athletics are just 29-44 on the season and last place in the AL West, but they’ve showed signs of life recently at 6-4 across their last 10 games. They enter this series off a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals on the road, so they do have a bit of momentum as they face a superior opponent.
Surprisingly, the A’s rank seventh in AVG and OPS on the season, as well as 13th in runs scored. Over the last 15 days, those numbers drop to 18th in AVG and 12th in OPS, though they remain ninth in scoring. The team’s problems lie in the pitching staff, which sits second-to-last in ERA, WHIP, and runs against. There are frameworks for a decent team in place, but some new arms will be needed before the Athletics have an opportunity to make some real noise.
Houston Astros
The Astros are now 41-30 on the season and 8-2 across their last 10 contests. The team keeps proving their grit time and again while they weather five starting pitchers on the IL, Yordan Alvarez’s long absence since early May, and a minor injury which has sidelined Isaac Paredes recently. After sweeping the Minnesota Twins, this team enters with all the momentum in the world in recent weeks.
Houston ranks 15th in AVG and 20th in OPS over the last 15 days with the 18th-most runs scored. Their pitching staff is key to their success, even with all the injuries, but they’ve seen enough offensive production lately to get by. Jose Altuve and Jeremy Pena each bat .333 or better over the last 15 days, while Jake Meyers bats .310 and Yanier Diaz finally seems to be rounding into form at .295 over that span. Rookie Cam Smith also knocked in his first career walk-off, so they’re weathering the injury storm well in Paredes’ absence.
Athletics vs. Astros pick, best bet
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the visiting Astros as -132 favorites on the Moneyline with the Athletics holding +109 odds of an outright win. The run total sits at 10.5, a pretty lofty mark.
The pitcher matchup looks entirely different now compared to how it was originally planned as both teams have now swapped starters.
The Athletics initially scheduled J.P. Sears to take the mound but have since changed to reliever Mitch Spence, a right-hander who’s seen 49.0 innings of work across 24 games with two spot starts. With a 3.67 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and 45 strikeouts this season, Spence’s numbers are more than respectable. He also went five innings in each of his starts with just three hits allowed and four strikeouts in each, conceding just one earned run and one walk.
As for Houston, Lance McCullers Jr. was supposed to start before being sent to the IL with a foot sprain. Ryan Gusto now sees the starting nod in his stead with a 4.56 ERA, 1.60 WHIP and 52 Ks across 49.1 innings.
With the shift in pitching matchups, over 5.5 hits allowed by Gusto looks like one of tonight’s top Athletics vs. Astros betting picks. The A’s hit surprisingly well for average and Gusto comes off two outings in which he allowed seven and eight hits. He’s allowed 32 hits in 22.1 innings over his last seven games along with an abysmal 2.15 WHIP, so this bet looks good tonight.
Best bet: Ryan Gusto 6+ hits allowed (+135)
Click the odds on this bet to tail!
