15th Sept - Rangers vs Astros

Last night’s loss means that there’s now just a half game separating the Houston Astros from the Texas Rangers in the AL West. It’s worth noting that Texas are just one game ahead of the Minnesota Twins for the final Wildcard place, so there’s no guaranteed playoff spot for the loser of this division title race.

The Rangers have now won nine of their 13 games against the Astros this season and they have a chance to move into first place in the division for the first time since April.

It appears that Texas has switched up its rotation by inserting Derek Holland (3-2, 3.13 ERA) into the game tonight. Holland has been pitching well and takes the place of Martin Perez, who has lost to Houston’s starter tonight – Colin McHugh.

McHugh could join Dallas Keuchel in the 17-win club on Tuesday night, but he’ll need to keep Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre quiet after the pair jumped out of slumps. Beltre has been swinging the bat pretty well all year, but Fielder’s home run that put Texas ahead last night was just his second in 20 games with Texas.

Three Reasons for Betting Tips

1. McHugh’s record against Texas

McHugh has 16 wins on the season for a reason and he’s never lost to the Rangers. He’s happy pitching in this ball park and he has a pretty good record against this roster’s hitting line-up.

2. Houston hits back

Holland hasn’t played a lot this season and he might just find this high intensity game to be a tough match-up against an Astros team that wants a win.

3. A few more runs than expected

It would be easy to play the Under line in Game Total terms here, but we think that these clubs will find some ways to score runs and scrap to an eight run game or more here. In particular, watch out for some late scores here.