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The Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros square off on Thursday with first pitch set for 8:10 p.m. ET. The game takes place at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. Tarik Skubal will take the mound for the Tigers and go up against Jose Urquidy for the Astros.
The Tigers have been scuffling of late, to put it nicely. The team entered the season with renewed hope and energy and has yet to live up to it. Detroit enters play on Thursday with an 8-15 record on the season, having won two of its last ten games. There were able to split a doubleheader with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday. Austin Meadows has been the team’s most consistent player batting .299 with 11 RBI.
The Astros just completed a three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners, and before that, they lost a series to the Toronto Blue Jays. Those two series are a good representation of their season so far, which is up and down. Sitting at 14-11 on the year, their win on Tuesday gave Dusty Baker his 2,000th win as a manager. Justin Verlander has been strong this season since returning from Tommy John Surgery. On Wednesday, he went 6.2IP, giving up five hits, two earned runs, and striking out three batters.
Tigers vs. Astros
Pitchers: Tarik Skubal vs. Jose Urquidy
First pitch: 8:10 p.m. ET
Tigers local broadcast: Bally Sports Detroit
Astros local broadcast:SportsNet SW
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)
Moneyline odds: Tigers (+145) Astros (-165)
Picks & predictions
Moneyline pick: Astros -165Houston has been the better team this season and will take care of business on Thursday. Detroit hasn’t played well on the road, hitting .215 and only producing 21 runs in nine games away from home this season. Urquidy has been up and down this season, but he should be able to produce against a Detroit team that struggles to score runs.
Game prop pick: Tigers team total runs: -3.5
The Tigers struggle to score runs, especially on the road. As highlighted earlier, they’ve scored 11 runs on the road this season. It’s been a struggle for this team to score runs, so take the under.
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