Rangers at Astros: Best Bets, Odds & Prediction For Thursday

The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros will meet on Thursday night in a battle between two teams with very different reputations. Okay, so maybe Houston has a bad reputation for cheating, but they are a team that most people knew would probably be very good again this season. Meanwhile, no one expected the Rangers to be where they are, which is currently sitting in third in the AL West standings with a 16-19 record. That doesn't sound great, but believe me, it is for Texas.

The Rangers have been a very competitive team in the early going of the 2022 season. They are coming off a series win against the red-hot Los Angeles Angels, and will carry some momentum into this series against the much more talented Astros. Glenn Otto will take the mound for the Rangers in this game, and when you look at his numbers, they are totally disgusting. Otto has a 6.38 ERA and a terrible 1.42 WHIP. However, these numbers are a bit inflated. While Otto is by no means a great pitcher, he had three respectable outings this season before letting up 8 ER's against Boston in only 4.0 innings of work in his last start. That will hurt the stats a bit.

For Houston, it has been business as usual in 2022. The team is cruising right along to what most assuredly will be another playoff bid. They are currently in first place in the AL West, and probably won't relinquish that title at season's end. Offensively, the Astros are scoring 4.51 runs per game and hitting .233 to begin the season (as of Wednesday). That's the 10th most runs scored per game and the 17th lowest team batting average.

However, they are absolutely crushing baseballs at a high rate. The Astros are averaging 1.4 homers per game, which is the highest average in the league. Framber Valdez will take the ball for the Astros in this game, and he has been solid. He owns a low 2.93 ERA and 1.28 WHIP. He already faced Texas once this season, going 6.0 innings with zero earned runs on four hits. Yet, the Astros still lost that game 6-2 funny enough.

Get the best bets for this game now!