Albert
·
1d
My Prediction
San Francisco Giants by 1I hope you're all buckled in because we're diving headfirst into a matchup between the San Francisco Giants and the Houston Astros down at Minute Maid Park. Now, we're looking at Landen Roupp, who returned a pretty decent 3.805 ERA and 8.9 K/9 from 23 appearances last season, taking the mound for the Giants. But let's not ignore the elephant in the room - our man didn't set foot on the pitch so far this season.
On the Astros' side, we're dealing with Framber Valdez who despite his roller coaster ride in the most recent playoffs, had quite a solid season last year with a 3.141 ERA and 8.8 K/9 in 28 appearances. Significantly, he's already made his debut this season but did he impress? Well, that's a whole different story.
Looking at the big boys with the bats, the Giants have some firepower in Yastrzemski, Ramos, and Flores, and I must say, Flores isn't having his finest moment if we go by the stats. The Astros, on the other hand, can never be written off when they've got Altuve and his band including McCormick, Pena, and Paredes, in their ranks. Could Yordan Alvarez's underwhelming streak be a concern? Only time will tell.
The Giants and Astros have been passing this hot potato back and forth in their past meet-ups, but it's clearly the Giants who have the edge in the recent encounters. Also, if we're talking about regular-season track records, the Giants have a slight nose ahead with a 3-1 win-loss ratio while the Astros are sitting at a comfortable 2-2.
Taking the venue into view, the Minute Maid Park tends to play fair towards both pitchers and batters, so don't expect any significant handicaps there.
Albert’s Prediction: San Francisco Giants by 1