{"id":16285,"date":"2011-06-30T16:39:04","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T21:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16285"},"modified":"2011-06-30T16:39:04","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T21:39:04","slug":"hapless-astros-look-to-avoid-being-swept-against-rangers-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/hapless-astros-look-to-avoid-being-swept-against-rangers-betting-preview-16285\/","title":{"rendered":"Hapless Astros Look To Avoid Being Swept Against Rangers – Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Rangers (43-38) AT Houston Astros (28-53)<\/strong>
\nJune 30, 2011 at 8:05 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 TEX -140, HOU +120<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 TEX -114, HOU -105<\/strong>
\nOpening Total: 8 <\/strong>
\nCurrent Total: 7.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 TEX- Matt Harrison; HOU- Wandy Rodriguez<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Wandy Rodriguez will look to get back on track after a rough outing last time<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To say that the Rangers have had the Astros number might just be an understatement.\u00a0 Tonight they seek their third consecutive sweep against the hapless Astros who sit a unhealthy 25 games below .500 and they currently own the MLB’s worst record.<\/p>\n

Last night, the Rangers eeked out a 3-2 win, spurred on by Ian Kinsler’s two solo home runs, while starting pitcher Colby Lewis threw six scoreless innings, but gave up two in the seventh.\u00a0 Still, he was able to get the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cColby was great tonight,\u201d Rangers manager Ron Washington remarked. \u201cHe just got into that seventh inning and two pitches made me have to make a decision to get him out of that ballgame. But up until that point he was just outstanding, had everything working.\u201d<\/p>\n

How bad have things been for the Astros?\u00a0 They’ve been outscored 46 to 21 in their last 8 games against the Rangers and it probably won’t get any easier tonight against Matt Harrison, who is 6-6 on the season with a 3.00 ERA.\u00a0 In his three career interleague starts Harrison has gone 2-0 and only given up 2 earned runs over 21 2\/3rds innings.\u00a0 In Friday’s victory over the Mets, Harrison gave up only 1 run over 7 innings in another quality start.<\/p>\n

Harrison, a 6’4″ lefty, is only 25 years old and still has yet to realize his full potential according to many scouts.\u00a0 Last season he entered the rotation but built up a 5.29 ERA en route to being demoted back to the bullpen.\u00a0 Following his demotion, he lost confidence and began to vary his pitches less, which made him more predictable to batters.<\/p>\n

Baseball Prospectus says that he has a “realistic projection” of a “middle reliever” rather than a middle of the rotation starter.\u00a0 His PECOTA projection for the year calls for a 6-7 record with a 5.63 ERA.\u00a0 Obviously, thus far, he has blown that out of the water and played well above expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s focused. Whatever trouble he created tonight, he was able to pitch around,\u201d Ron Washington said of Harrison.<\/p>\n

Against the Astros on the road, Harrison has pitched three games, only one of which was a start, and he has compiled a 3.38 ERA over those appearances.<\/p>\n

Wandy Rodriguez takes the mound for the Astros tonight.\u00a0 He’s 5-4 on the year with a 3.21 ERA and has been hot recently before losing his first decision in over two months.\u00a0 In his last 7 starts he is 4-0 with a stunning 1.31 ERA.\u00a0 He’s battled elbow issues but appears to be healthy now.\u00a0 He struggled badly against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, giving up 5 runs in 6 innings, including back to back shots by Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton.<\/p>\n

The slight of frame 5’11” 160 pound Rodriguez has been defying expectations on an annual basis based on the fact that he’s so small, much like Pedro Martinez was.\u00a0 I’m not saying he is Pedro’s equivalent, not at all, but he is reminiscent of the former Cy Young winner.\u00a0 He features an 89 mph fastball, but his money pitch is his curveball that is framed so well by the control he has over his fastball.\u00a0 After fixing his changeup last season, he posted a 2.03 ERA in his final 18 starts.\u00a0 This year he is projected by Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projections for a 12-9 record with a 3.97 ERA in 181 Innings Pitched.<\/p>\n

In his last 7 innings against the Rangers, Wandy has given up 12 runs while Ian Kinsler has hit three home runs and 5 RBIs just in this series.\u00a0 Life time against Rodriguez, Kinsler is 9 of 13 with 2 of the 9 hits having been home runs.\u00a0 Kinsler has battled injuries his entire career and had only 460 plate apperances last season, while hitting .359 with a .633 slugging percentage, playing in only 103 games, however.\u00a0 He’s obviously an all-star level player, but staying healthy is a must for Kinsler and the Rangers.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The Texas Rangers are 4-1 SU in their last 5 games on the road and the total has gone UNDER In 4 of their last 6 on the road.\u00a0 The Rangers are 6-1 SU in their last 7 games against the Houston Astros while the Rangers are 5-0 SU in their last 5 road games in Houston.<\/p>\n

The Houston Astros are 0-5 SU in their last 5 games and the total has gone OVER in 5 of their last 7 at home.\u00a0 The Astros are 0-5 SU in their last 5 home games and they are 1-6 SU In their last 7 against the Texas Rangers.\u00a0 The Astros are 0-5 SU in their last 5 home games against the Rangers.<\/p>\n

It’s interesting to note that the Rangers were favorites when betting opened, but since the line has shifted to nearly even odds, likely as a result of some sharp betting.\u00a0 While the Astros have been pitiful, I like what veteran Wandy Rodriguez brings to the table and if he can avoid the issues he had in his last start, namely being too predictable with his pitches, he should be able to control the Rangers.\u00a0 He’ll have to be careful with Ian Kinsler, though, as he alone can cause enough damage for Rodriguez to pick up a loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Rangers (43-38) AT Houston Astros (28-53) June 30, 2011 at 8:05 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 TEX -140, HOU +120 Current Line:\u00a0 TEX -114, HOU -105 Opening Total: 8 Current Total: 7.5 SP:\u00a0 TEX- Matt Harrison; HOU- Wandy Rodriguez To say that the Rangers have had the Astros number might just be an understatement.\u00a0 Tonight […]<\/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":[1039,771],"class_list":["post-16285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-houston-astros","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16285","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=16285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16286,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16285\/revisions\/16286"}],"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=16285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}