The MLB’s Friday slate finishes off with a handful of contests in the night window. These matchups include an AL West tilt as the Los Angeles Angels host the Houston Astros at 9:38 p.m. EST out on the West Coast to kick off a three-game series.
Here’s an Angels vs. Astros prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for tonight’s contest.
Angels vs. Astros prediction, preview
Los Angeles Angels
Surprisingly enough, the Angels are actually fighting their way up the AL West standings as they approach the .500 mark. While they’re still 36-38 this season, the team actually surpassed the Texas Rangers for third place in the division and stunned a slumping New York Yankees squad by taking three of four games over the Bronx Bombers on the road in their last series. Are these real signs of life?
Probably not, but the recent stretch remains impressive nonetheless. As the season nears the halfway point, the Angels are still second-to-last in AVG, 23rd in OPS, and 22nd in runs scored. To make matters worse for a poor offense, the team sees the second-most strikeouts with the second-fewest walks drawn. In other words, the plate process displayed leaves much to be desired.
The pitching staff also doesn’t have the greatest track record at 24th in ERA and 28th in WHIP. The Halos also walk more batters than all but one team while ranking 26th in strikeouts. As if insult needed to be added to injury, they’ve also given up the sixth-most home runs of any MLB squad.
Houston Astros
The Astros are essentially polar opposites of the Angels. Houston holds a 43-32 record this year with the third-best win percentage among all AL squads. They’re also 7-3 across their last 10 games and could very well have been 9-1 in that span were it not for two walk-off homers by Nick Kurtz during their last series against the Athletics.
Over the last couple of weeks, the Stros jumped to second in AVG, 11th in OPS, and 15th in runs scored on the season. The offense has really come around lately with 71 runs in their last 13 games, the second-most of any team over the last two weeks. While the Astros are 23rd in walks drawn, they’ve struck out the fifth-fewest times in the league and are middle-of-the-pack at 15th in home runs (also while slugger Yordan Alvarez hasn’t played since May 2).
The pitching staff looks even more impressive than the offense, though. Despite battling injuries throughout the campaign and having five starters on the IL at the moment, the Astros are sixth in ERA, second in WHIP, and first in strikeouts by a significant 42-punchout margin. They’re also 12th in walks allowed as well as second in opponent AVG.
Angels vs. Astros pick, best bet
The Houston Astros are a -168 favorite on the Moneyline tonight while the Los Angeles Angels hold +138 odds of pulling off the upset. The run total sits at eight.
The Angels start Yusei Kikuchi tonight as a former Astro takes on the team he just left last offseason. Kikuchi’s work this season spans 82.2 innings with a respectable 3.05 ERA and 78 strikeouts, though his 1.48 WHIP looks rough.
Fans of the visitors have much to look forward to since it’s Hunter Brown bump day. The fourth-year flamethrower looks like a budding superstar over his 86.0 innings of work this year. In that span, the right-hander boasts a fantastic 1.88 ERA, second-best among qualified pitchers. He also has an equally-impressive 0.93 WHIP, sixth-best in the MLB, and his 105 strikeouts also rank inside the league’s top-10 hurlers.
It doesn’t take an expert to see how outmatched the Angels are against a surging Astros squad headlined by one of the best pitchers in the entirety of Major League Baseball. I went with an alt run line of Astros -2.5 on Wednesday when Houston tallied an 11-4 victory, so I’m running it back once more as I expect them to dominate on the road.
Best bet: Alt run line HOU Astros -2.5 (+155)
Click the odds on this bet to tail!
