{"id":14765,"date":"2011-04-08T14:31:49","date_gmt":"2011-04-08T19:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14765"},"modified":"2011-04-08T14:31:49","modified_gmt":"2011-04-08T19:31:49","slug":"houston-astros-look-to-build-momentum-at-home-vs-florida-marlins-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/houston-astros-look-to-build-momentum-at-home-vs-florida-marlins-betting-preview-14765\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Astros Look To Build Momentum At Home Vs. Florida Marlins – Betting preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Marlins (3-3)\u00a0 AT Houston Astros (1-5)<\/strong>
\nApril 8, 2011 at 7:05 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Runline: FLA -1.5 +130, HOU +1.5 -150<\/strong>
\nCurrent Runline:\u00a0 FLA -1.5 +145, HOU +1.5 -165<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Fla -130 \/ Hou +110<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Fla -111 \/ Hou +101<\/strong>
\nOpening Total: 8<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total: 8<\/strong>
\nSP:\u00a0 FLA- R. Nolasco; HOU- W. Rodriguez<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Wandy Rodriguez struggled in his first outing, giving up 7 runs in 4 innings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This game represents Houston’s home opener, and for a team that is 1-5, they probably couldn’t be any happier, coming off a surprise victory in Cincinnati against the Reds, handing the Reds their first loss of the 2011 season.\u00a0 Tonight will be the first game in a 10 game home stand, a time period the Astros hope will enable them to propel to the top of the standings, or at least to respectability, something the Astros have lacked in years’ past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be nice to go home and get into a routine at home,\u201d Astros manager Brad Mills commented.\u00a0 \u201cBeing there for 10 games will be nice. And obviously, we want to play well at home and start off by playing good, consistent baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don’t let the positive sentiment dissuade you from seeing how bad the Astros have been, however.\u00a0 Through their first 6 games they are hitting just .219, while scoring only 13 runs in 5 games (2.6 per game).\u00a0 Moreover, the pitching and defense has been lackluster, giving up 37 runs through those 6 games, making it difficult for the Astros to win, barring an offensive explosion from a team without much firepower.<\/p>\n

Starter Wandy Rodriguez got off to a rough start.\u00a0 He lasted only 4 innings and gave up 7 runs and 9 hits.\u00a0 The lefty will be well suited against the Houston lineup, however, as the Astros struggle with lefties (and righties for that matter).\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s definitely much farther ahead than he was last year at this same time,\u201d Mills said of Rodriguez.\u00a0 Wandy Rodriguez’ PECOTA projections project a 12-9 record with a 3.87 ERA.\u00a0 The ERA is a .27 regression, but the win total is expected to be better since the Astros hitting has improved.<\/p>\n

Ricky Nolasco got off to a hot start for the Marlins, despite not recording a decision.\u00a0 He’ll take his 0-0 record to the mound again, armed with a 2.57 ERA, an average that should allow for victory given at least a little offensive production from the Marlins.\u00a0 He missed the last month of 2010 with a torn meniscus in his knee, but appears to have rebounded just fine from the minor injury.\u00a0 Astros’ right fielder Hunter Pence has had good success against Nolasco and has jacked 3 homers in 10 at bats against him.\u00a0 Also working against the Marlins is the fact that Houston has won 12 of 16 at home against the Marlins.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 5 of Florida’s past 6 games and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 5 on the road.\u00a0 Florida is 1-6 SU in their last 7 on the road and the total has gone OVER in 5 of their last 6 games against the Astros.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Florida’s last 8 games against the Astros on the road.\u00a0 Florida is 1-4 SU in their last 5 road games against the Astros.<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 5 of Houston’s last 6 games and the Astros are 1-5 SU in their last 6 games.\u00a0 The Astros are also 15-8 SU in their last 23 games at home.\u00a0 The total also has gone OVER in 5 of Houston’s last 6 games against Florida.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Houston’s last 8 games against the Marlins at home.\u00a0 Houston is 4-1 SU in their last 5 home games against the Florida Marlins.<\/p>\n

If Wandy Rodriguez can come into the game and pitch as has been expected from him, the Astros should win this game.\u00a0 However, Nolasco has pitched the Astros lineup tough and if he can avoid putting runners on base when his arch nemesis Hunter Pence steps to the plate, then Florida could win this game, as they are favored to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Marlins (3-3)\u00a0 AT Houston Astros (1-5) April 8, 2011 at 7:05 PM EST Opening Runline: FLA -1.5 +130, HOU +1.5 -150 Current Runline:\u00a0 FLA -1.5 +145, HOU +1.5 -165 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Fla -130 \/ Hou +110 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Fla -111 \/ Hou +101 Opening Total: 8 Current Total: 8 SP:\u00a0 FLA- R. Nolasco; HOU- […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[130,1039],"class_list":["post-14765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-florida-marlins","tag-houston-astros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14766,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14765\/revisions\/14766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}