The Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics meet for Game 2 their best-of-five AL Division Series Tuesday afternoon at 4:37 p.m. ET at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Below, we analyze the Astros-Athletics MLB betting odds and lines, with picks and best bets.
Astros at Athletics: Projected starting pitchers
LHP Framber Valdez vs. LHP Sean Manaea
Valdez posted a 3.57 ERA and 1.12 WHIP across 10 regular-season starts and one relief appearance. He pitched five scoreless innings against the Minnesota Twins in the Wild Card Series.
- Has held current Oakland bats to a .686 OPS and .108 ISO in limited action.
Manaea registered a 4.50 ERA and 1.20 WHIP over 11 regular season turns. The veteran port-sider was rocked for 3 homers and 4 earned runs in two innings of work in Oakland’s Wild Card Series against the Chicago White Sox.
- Faced the Astros Sept. 10 and went seven innings, allowing 1 run on just 2 hits.
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Astros at Athletics: Key injuries
(Get the latest injury news here.)
Astros
- RP Roberto Osuna (elbow) out
- OF Yordan Alvarez (knee) out
Athletics
- 3B Matt Chapman (hip) out
Astros at Athletics: Odds, lines, picks and betting tips
MLB odds courtesy of BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports for a full list. Odds last updated at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Money line (ML)
Peg both starters in this all-southpaw matchup as being more talented than what is revealed by surface numbers. Both were undone by rates around the margins, but there’s enough upside on the Houston (-106) side of this money line play to make them an undercard lean.
Consider a partial-unit play on the ASTROS (-106).
New to sports betting? A winning $106 bet on the Astros ML will net a $100 profit.
Run line/Against the spread (ATS)
PASS on what is a juice-drowned proposition on multi-run margins: Athletics +1.5 (-175)/Astros -1.5 (+145).
Over/Under (O/U)
The strongest play in Tuesday’s matchup is the Under, which went a robust 9-3 over a dozen regular-season meetings between these two AL West foes. Oakland struggles against lefty pitching. The Astros do, too, and since Sept. 1 their .509 OPS against port-siders ranks dead-last in MLB.
Both starters figure to undercut numbers suggested by their earned-run averages, and both excel in keeping the ball on the ground and avoiding hard contact. In the last six Houston-Oakland games tagged with a total between 8.5-9.5, the games have averaged 5.2 runs. Back the UNDER 9 (-110) without reservation.
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