The Athletics upset the Houston Astros during last night’s contest with a 5-2 final score, so the home team looks to get back in the win column during tonight’s rematch at Daikin Park. Will the Astros bounce back despite their piecemeal lineup as they deal with numerous injuries, or will the A’s get the better of their opponent on the road once again?
Here’s an Astros vs. Athletics prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for Friday night’s game.
Astros vs. Athletics prediction, preview
Yesterday’s 5-2 result was mildly surprising since the Astros are generally one of the MLB’s best teams at home with a 33-20 record on their own diamond. However, the team keeps dealing with a banged-up lineup and remains shorthanded in the bottom of the lineup especially, and the recent loss of Isaac Paredes really hurts in particular. They scored just two runs on six hits last night in the series opener with three of those knocks coming from journeyman Taylor Trammell, who isn’t in tonight’s lineup.
The Athletics had no such problems yesterday, tallying 12 hits on the evening as rookie Nick Kurtz excelled alongside Gio Urshela with three hits apiece. Luis Urias also went 2-for-4 with a homer as well as the A’s never trailed throughout the contest. It was a great night for the Athletics, but they do still sit last in the AL West at 43-62 as they head into another divisional battle against their rivals tonight.
These offenses are somewhat evenly matched while the Astros fill a couple of spots in the batting order with depth players, but the arms are what should make the difference in game two of the series. Houston starts Ryan Gusto (4.46 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 77 SO) against lefty Jeffrey Springs (4.18 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 90 SO) in a perfectly respectable battle. However, the Astros’ bullpen ranks among the MLB’s top units in terms of both ERA and WHIP while the Athletics’ pen sits much lower near the bottom of each stat.
Astros vs. Athletics pick, best bet
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Astros as -135 favorites to win on the Moneyline on Friday night. The Athletics are +111 on the Moneyline with a run total of 8.5.
Houston sits 5-3 since the All-Star break and swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in their most recent series, so even though they’re hurt, the team can still beat talented squads. They do have an advantage over the A’s in this one, and I don’t expect them to go down without putting up a fight. Meanwhile, the visitors have won just two games since returning from the All-Star break and their encouraging results are more at the individual level (shoutout Nick Kurtz) rather than as a whole. Betting the ‘Stros Moneyline makes sense, but I also lean toward Kurtz to record 2+ hits at plus-value since he’s batting a red-hot .500 over his last 10 games with seven multi-hit outings in that span.
Best bet: HOU Astros ML (-135)
Slight lean: Nick Kurtz 2+ hits (+245)
Click the odds on these bets to tail!
