Astros and Rangers Set to Kick Series Off in Florida Thanks to Hurricane Harvey
Who: Texas Rangers v. Houston Astros
When: Tuesday August 29th, 2017 7:10PM EST
Where: Tropicana Field—St. Petersburg, Florida
If you read the above carefully, you probably noticed something a little bit strange about where the Houston Astros are playing the Texas Rangers this week. Thanks to the surprising, elongated destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey, the Astros will host the Rangers from the home of the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday evening. What this will do the psyche of the players taking the field, and how many people will be in attendance both remain to be seen.
As for how these two sides have performed in recent weeks, there are different answers. The Rangers, who are mostly being counted out as far as making the playoffs is concerned, will enter this series on the back of a 3-game sweep at the hands of the Athletics, in Oakland. The Rangers are slowly but surely falling behind in the AL Wild Card race, and facing off the Astros is not going to make things any easier. By and large, the number one problem facing the Rangers is their inability to score. In their most recent series with the Athletics, the Rangers only managed to muster 7 total runs across 3 games. If they do that against the Astros they very well might be swept again.
As for Houston, they will enter this series having won 2 of 3 in Los Angeles, against the Angels. The Astros have not particularly been hammering in runs of late, but they have been winning close games. Every single one of their games with the Angels were decided by 2 runs or less, with 2 of the 3 being decided by just a single run. It is these kind of performances that make the Astros look like that much more of deep playoff contender. When you consider that many experts did not even think the Astros were the best team in their division, their performance this year has been remarkable thus far.
Game Overview and Analysis
The Astros will be sending one of their more inconsistent pitchers to the mound in the form of Mike Fiers (8-8 4.17 ERA). Fiers, though inconsistent, is coming off of a win against the strong Nationals in which he pitched a full 7 innings and gave up only one earned run on 4 total hits. Generally speaking that is something Fiers can do; keep runs off the board. Over his last 10 starts, Fiers has given up 4 or more runs on 3 occasions, equaling the number of times he has given up 1 earned or fewer. Inconsistency being the name of the game, there is no way of being sure what Mike Fiers is going to step out onto the mound in Florida on Tuesday night.
As for the Astros’ bats, things have been moving along smoothly. Though they were held a few times by the Angels, the Astros offense managed to pull out wins, and that is exactly what the coaching staff and fan base will like to see at this time of year. Perhaps boosted by the weight and responsibility of bringing their city some hope in this time of pain, the Astros will be ready to play, whether in Houston, Florida, or anywhere else.
As for the Rangers, they will be sending Martin Perez (9-10 5.50 ERA) to the mound. Perez might have been struggling roughly a month ago, but in recent weeks he has really turned things up. Entering this series, Perez will be looking to make Tuesday’s start his 5th consecutive victory. In each of his last 5 starts, Perez has gotten the win, and not only that, he has been flat-out dominant at times. Against the Angels last week, Perez pitched a complete 7 innings without giving up any runs at all. He will be hoping for a repeat performance, but even with a solid outing he will still need help from his offense.
The Rangers are not the most prolific scoring side in the AL West, so it will be interesting to see if they can answer the call or not. My guess is that their bats match up well against Fiers, but even that might not be enough for the Rangers to have much of a chance.
Betting Prediction
If you are going to make a moneyline wager, I think it has to be on the Astros (-158). Mike Fiers might be struggling to some extent, but the Astros are looking like one of the strongest teams in MLB, and I do not think that is going to bode well for the Rangers.
The point spread on Bovada sees the Astros favored by 1.5 runs (+125). I think this is a good bet to make for 2 reasons. For one, I believe the Astros are going to easily take care of the Rangers. In doing that, it is my opinion that they will score a lot of runs and outpace the Texas offense. All in all, I believe the Astros can easily cover this spread.