On Monday night, the Texas Rangers (66-66) continue their quest for an AL Wild Card berth as they fight to get above the .500 mark once more. They host the Los Angeles Angels (61-69) tonight for the first leg of a three-game AL West showdown, so with the added stakes of divisional bragging rights on the line, how will these two teams respond?
Here’s a Rangers vs. Angels prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook as this three-game series gets started on Monday.
Rangers vs. Angels prediction, preview
These Rangers have experienced a very up-and-down campaign in 2025. On one hand, they’ve approached the .500 mark several times only to fall back below every time it seems they’ve reached a breakthrough. The good news for tonight is that they play at home, where they have a 40-26 record, but the offense still seems unpredictable on a nightly basis. Texas ranks 18th in OPS (.724) with the 15th-best average (.249) over the last month, and they’re 17th in scoring as well with 117 runs over that span. They don’t really hit for power with 31 homers in that sample, tied for 16th, and they fall 18th in the stat on the season overall. A 5-5 record across their last 10 games feels fine, and they do come off a series sweep over the Cleveland Guardians over the weekend. The hope is that the pitching staff — undoubtedly elite this season — is rebounding from a recent rough patch as they shut out their opponent in each of their last two contests as well.
If the arms are indeed on the upswing again, they could see some success against an Angels team that relies on two true outcomes. Los Angeles falls 21st in scoring over the last month with 110 runs, and the offense truly relies on the moonshot with the fourth-most homers this season (183). The team’s recent OPS sits 21st (.690), but their batting average falls all the way to second-worst in the MLB (.217) over the last month and remains in the same position on the year (.231). The Halos struggle to reach base all that often, partially due to an abundance of strikeouts. With a swing-happy approach that requires extra-base hits or homers to score, the Angels swing for the fences and miss plenty with 56 more strikeouts than any other team this year. They’re hyper-aggressive, which the Rangers will take advantage of this evening.
Rangers vs. Angels pick, best bet
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Rangers as -181 home favorites on the Moneyline while the Angels hold +148 odds to win on the road. The run total sits at just seven, the lowest of today’s slate.
Texas starts ace pitcher Jacob deGrom (2.76 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 148 SO) who’s putting forth a Cy Young-caliber campaign at age 37. He duels Los Angeles’ Jose Soriano (4.00 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 130 SO), who boasts some great velocity but concedes a ton of hard hits.
While Rangers -1.5 does hold some value at plus odds tonight, I’m a tad hesitant to take that bet since Texas’ offense produces some very hot-and-cold outings. Baseball as a sport remains prone to randomness, but they’re simply more difficult to trust at the plate than most teams. However, I do love betting deGrom’s pitcher props this evening. With an 83rd-percentile grade or better in chase percentage, whiff percentage and strikeout percentage, the right-hander looks primed for a massive performance. I’d happily take the star to record over 7.5 strikeouts at even odds against a lineup that goes down on strikes more than any other, and 14+ combined strikeouts for these two arms also brings some value at +170 as well.
Best bet: Jacob deGrom over 7.5 strikeouts (+100)
Click the odds on this bet to tail!
