The Houston Astros will open a series on the road against one of the worst teams in baseball with the Texas Rangers, at Globe Life Field. The Astros took two of three games from the Kansas City Royals, improving to 75-52 on the season, and got an offday leading into this game. The Rangers lost two of three to the Indians, continuing the struggles this season and dropping to 44-82 on the season and well out ofhte playoff picture after losing seven of their last ten games.
Houston has been one of the best offenses in the MLB this season leading the league in team batting average hitting .268 on the year whilst also leading the league in scoring offense averaging 5.38 runs per contest. Yordon Alvarez is leading the way with 26 homeruns and 86 RBIs, but the real danger of this Houston team is their impressive depth. They have a team full of all-stars and a nice combination of younger prospects and veterans that could lead them to a another deep post-season run.
The right-hander Jake Odorizzi is likely to get the start, he’s 6-6 with a 4.52 ERA on the season and a 1.26 WHIP in just 79.2 innings of work. Odorizzi is 31-years-old and continues to be a solid, inning eating starter after Houston acquired him from Minnesota in the offseason, his numbers this season are slightly above his career 3.96 ERA and the strikeout numbers are down to 7.9K/9.
The Rangers have not announced a starter yet for this contest, but have been one of the worst staffs in baseball this season and come in with a team 4.69 ERA and have registered just 975 strikeouts as a unit, which ranks last in the MLB. No matter who goes, it’s likely this game gets turned over to the bullpen early and the Astros should be able to generate plenty of runs throughout this contest.
Texas is among the worst hitting teams in the league hitting just .227 as a team, ranking 29th in the MLB, and scoring just 3.79 runs per game which ranks 28th in scoring offense. Right fielder Adolis Garcia has been one of the few bright spots, he made an all-star team a leads the team with 27 homeruns and 71 RBIs in his rookie season. Third baseman Isiah Kiner Falefa is also having a nice season hitting .266 with 7 homeruns and 40 RBIs in just his 26-year-old season.
