Take Astros On Road Against Rangers

Astros vs. Rangers, 8:05 ET

About two weeks ago, I mentioned that you should put some money on Justin Steele for Cy Young. He was at +1500 at that point. His is now at +200 and the second favorite for the award. The current favorite? Blake Snell, and he was at +340 when I said to take him as well. Maybe neither of them cash, but I'm happy where we are sitting right now and we were able to get a win with Steele on the mound yesterday as well. Tonight, we see a huge matchup between the Astros and Rangers.

The Astros are currently tied for first place in the AL West which is only surprising that they are tied as most experts expected them to win the division once again. Looking at the stats for the Astros, it is kind of interesting that they are only one game over .500 at home, but on the road they are 16 games over. Most teams are the opposite of that. The Astros continue to excel both at the plate and on the mound, but it wasn't all smooth sailing for them this season. To start the year, they came out with a World Series hangover and with the hot start of the Rangers they fell behind in the division race. This is a big series for both of these teams, and while it won't win either of them the division, with just 20-something games remaining, it can help significantly. Tonight, Framber Valdez goes to the mound. He hasn't been quite as consistent as he was last season, but he's still had a nice campaign. He has struggled since the All-Star Break as he has allowed 32 earned runs over 56.2 innings. Sure, one of those games was a no-hitter, and he took another one into the seventh inning, but he also has four games where he allowed at least five earned runs. His ERA is higher on the road than at home, and he has allowed seven earned runs over 9.2 innings to the Rangers over two starts. But, he allowed six earned in one of the games.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - APRIL 12: Nathan Eovaldi #17 of the Texas Rangers returns from the injured list tonight. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

The Rangers have to be really frustrated. They've had a strong campaign all year, and are now looking at not just one team ahead of them in the standings but two. Sure, the Astros were expected to be here, and even the Mariners were expected to be here to a certain extent. The Mariners were just an average team this season basically through the end of July. Then they went crazy and now are the division leaders. It looked like one or two teams would make the playoffs from the AL West, now it could be all three of them. The series is important for the Rangers especially as they have the lowest playoff odds of all three teams right now. They do get a good starter to begin their series with Nathan Eovaldi taking the hill. He was great in the first half of the season, but really hasn't pitched in the second half of the year as this is his first start since July 18th. Eovaldi did face the Astros once this season and went seven strong innings and allowed just two hits as he held them scoreless.

I really don't like how Valdez has been throwing the ball, but the issue is that it is hard to trust Eovaldi coming off of the injured list. The Astros have been playing great baseball for a while now and you can certainly trust them on the road. I'll back the Astros as short favorites in this one.

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