Astros vs. Royals Betting Odds, Pitching Matchup – August 30, 2024

The Houston Astros (72-62) host the Kansas City Royals (75-60) at 8:10 p.m. ET Friday for a meeting between two of the league’s best hitters. For the favored Astros (-160), Yordan Alvarez is batting .313 this year, fourth in the league, while Bobby Witt Jr. ranks first in the majors with a .344 average for the underdog Royals. Framber Valdez starts for Houston while Seth Lugo is Kansas City’s starter for the contest.

Here is our betting primer for this contest, and find all of our MLB betting picks, too!

Astros vs. Royals Betting Lines

• Favorite: Astros (-160)
• Underdog: Royals (+134)
• Over/under: 8

Astros vs. Royals Betting Insights

• The Astros have been favorites in 96 games this season and have come away with the win 54 times (56.2%) in those contests.
• Houston has a record of 24-10 in contests when bookmakers favor them by -160 or more on the moneyline.
• Oddsmakers have implied with the moneyline set for this matchup that the Astros have a 61.5% chance of pulling out a win.
• The Royals have compiled a 31-36 record in games they were listed as the moneyline underdog (winning 46.3% of those games).
• Kansas City is 6-10 (winning only 37.5% of its games) when playing as a moneyline underdog of +134 or longer.
• The Royals have an implied moneyline win probability of 42.7% in this matchup.

Astros vs. Royals Hitting Leaders

• Alvarez leads Houston in homers with 28 while also maintaining a team-best .313 batting average.
• Among all MLB hitters, Alvarez ranks fourth in batting average, third in on-base percentage, and seventh in slugging.
• Jose Altuve has 158 hits and an OBP of .351 to go with a slugging percentage of .442 this season.
• Witt leads the Royals with 28 home runs while putting up a team-high batting average of .344.
• In all of MLB, Witt is 12th in homers and fifth in RBI.
• Vinnie Pasquantino has capitalized on opportunities as he paces his team with 97 RBI.

Astros vs. Royals Pitching Rankings

• The Astros average 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings as a pitching staff, second-most in the league.
• The Astros have pitched to a 3.75 ERA this season, which ranks sixth in baseball.
• The Astros have a combined WHIP of 1.246 as a pitching staff, which ranks 12th in MLB.
• The 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings put together by the Royals pitching staff ranks 24th in MLB.
• Kansas City has the 12th-ranked team ERA among all MLB pitching staffs (3.91).
• The Royals average MLB’s 18th-ranked WHIP (1.274).