Framber Valdez gets the ball for the Houston Astros (77-68) Thursday, looking for his 15th win of the season in a matchup with the Oakland Athletics (64-82). The Astros and Valdez are -236 favorites to pick up the win in the contest, which starts at 2:10 p.m. ET on SCHN, live from Minute Maid Park. Houston’s Valdez and Oakland’s Mitch Spence have been named the starters for this contest.
Take a look at our betting preview for this game, and uncover all of our MLB picks, too!
Moneyline
Bet $20, Payout $28.47
Astros to win vs Athletics -236
Astros vs. Athletics Betting Lines
- Favorite: Astros (-236)
- Underdog: Athletics (+193)
- Over/under: 8.5
Astros vs. Athletics Betting Insights
- The Astros have won in 59, or 55.1%, of the 107 contests they have been named as odds-on favorites in this year.
- This season Houston has come away with a win six times in eight chances when named as a favorite of at least -236 on the moneyline.
- Sportsbooks have implied with the moneyline set for this matchup that the Astros have a 70.2% chance of pulling out a win.
- The Athletics have won 40.3% of the games this season they were the moneyline underdog (52-77).
- In games it has played as a moneyline underdog with odds of +193 or longer, Oakland has a record of 6-6 (50%).
- Based on this contest’s moneyline, the Athletics have an implied win probability of 34.1%.
Astros vs. Athletics Hitting Leaders
- Yordan Alvarez is batting .313 this season with 32 home runs, both rank first among Houston hitters.
- Alvarez ranks 10th in the majors in homers, and 33rd in RBI.
- Jose Altuve has collected 174 hits this season and has an OBP of .357. He’s slugging .450 on the year.
- Brent Rooker has put up a team-high batting average of .299, while pacing the Athletics in home runs (35) and runs batted in (101).
- Rooker is seventh in home runs and fifth in RBI among all batters in the big leagues.
- JJ Bleday is batting .244 with 39 doubles, four triples, 20 home runs and 58 walks.
Astros vs. Athletics Pitching Rankings
- The Astros have a 9.3 K/9 this season as a pitching staff, second-best in baseball.
- The Astros have the sixth-best ERA (3.73) in the majors this season.
- The Astros have a combined WHIP of 1.250 as a pitching staff, which ranks 14th in MLB.
- The Athletics pitching staff ranks 27th in MLB with a collective 7.9 strikeouts per nine innings.
- Oakland has a 4.31 team ERA that ranks 22nd across all MLB pitching staffs.
- The Athletics average baseball’s 25th-ranked WHIP (1.324).