The Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros will wrap up their three game series on Wednesday. Pittsburgh won the first two games of the series. With three straight wins, the Pirates are 55-52 on the season. Pittsburgh is tied in second place with the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Houston Astros, with their three straight losses are now 55-52 on the season. The Astros and Mariners are back and forth at the top of the American League West. Houston is 4-6 over their last 10 games.
The Houston Astros are big favorites in this game. Houston is -210. The total for this game is set at 8 runs.
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates got the party started on Tuesday with RBI’s from Jared Triolo and Connor Joe. Michael A. Taylor later hit his fourth home run, and Andrew McCutchen drove in a run late. The Pirates came away with 11 hits to beat the Astros for the second straight day.
Pittsburgh is 19th in all of Major League Baseball in runs scored, with 4.2 per game. The Pirates are hitting .231 as a team. The Pirates have hit 106 home runs, which is near the bottom of the league. The top Pirates hitter has been Bryan Reynolds, with 18 home runs, while O’Neill Cruz has 17.
Martin Perez is going to get the start for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Perez is 2-5 on the season, with a 5.21 earned run average. Perez has thrown 83 innings this season, and struck out 63 batters, and walked 32. The lefthander went six strong innings against the Cardinals his last time out.
The Pirates host the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend, before the San Diego Padres come to town.
Houston Astros
For the Houston Astros, Framber Valdez gets the nod. The lefthander is 9-5 on the season, with a 3.43 earned run average. Valdez has thrown 110.1 innings and struck out 98 batters. In his last start, he went 6.1 innings, and did not give up a run to the Dodgers.
Catcher Yainer Diaz had four hits, but the Astros came away with just 10 in the game. The Astros also saw Chas McCormick have two hits in the game. Houston remains one of the top hitting teams in the league, with a .262 batting average. The Astros have also clubbed 111 homeruns on the season.
Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez are the top hitters. Altuve is hitting .311, while Alvarez is at .299. Alvarez has 20 homeruns, while Kyle Tucker has 19. Altuve and Alec Bregman are next with 14 homeruns on the season.
Houston will host the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend in a three game series.
Astros Top Pirates
Take the Astros to beat the Pirates in this game. Valdez is tough, and will be a ton to handle in this game. When betting on this game on Wednesday, we are going to take the Houston Astros -1.5 (-105) over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Enjoy the game and good luck!
