May 6, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; Houston Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker (30) hits an RBI-sacrifice fly against the Seattle Mariners during the fourth inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Pretty soon it’ll be time for the Houston Astros to get concerned. They’re 17-17 and third in the AL West after losing their last two games to the Mariners in Seattle. Now, Houston is heading south for three-games with the LA Angels in Anaheim. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout’s team is 19-16, 1.5 games ahead of the defending champions.
For Game 1 of this three-game set the Angels will hand the ball to Patrick Sandoval to make his seventh start of the year. The Astros will counter with Hunter Brown who is 3-1 with a 2.60 ERA in six starts. Sandoval is 3-1 with a 2.93 ERA.
Let’s get into the odds for the Astros and Angels in this AL West matchup.
Astros vs. Angels odds, run line and total
Astros vs. Angels prediction and pick
The Astros have really only had two reliable bats in their lineup all season long. Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, both who swing it from the left side. The Astros are 16th in OPS against left-handed pitchers, like Sandoval, with a .741 OPS. Both Tucker and Alvarez have slightly worse numbers against lefties, though they hit them well for a left-on-left matchup. However, any drop from their elite level of production is a big problem for the Astros.
The right-handed hitters in Houston’s lineup just have not given them much of anything. Jose Abreu still has an OPS in fives with no home runs, Alex Bregman only has eight extra base hits with an OPS of .643, and Jose Altuve is still out with an injury. Against Sandoval, they’ll need to have their righties step up and that doesn’t seem likely.
On Saturday, the Astros only managed three runs over six innings against lefty Marco Gonzales, and Sandoval has been much better than Gonzalez this season. I’ll fade Houston again in this spot.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change