Albert
·
3d
My Prediction
Houston Astros by 2Listen in folks, we're in for a spicy face-off between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Houston Astros, taking place at the hitter-friendly Minute Maid Park in Houston. Just for your quick reference, Rays' hurler Shane Baz is going to bring his 5.11 ERA to the mound against the Astros, while Ryan Gusto will be firing up his 4.81 ERA for Houston. It looks like the strikeout battle would be fairly even, with Gusto having a slight edge in K/9. Residing in the "fun facts" department, the Rays are missing out Baz's uncanny ability to let the opponents score frequently this season.
Switching sides to the batters, the Rays present a very capable line-up comprising Jonathan Aranda, Curtis Mead, Brandon Lowe, and Junior Caminero who have been fairly decent with the bats during the season. But, Astros aren't quite the pushovers either. Jeremy Pena, Jake Meyers, Isaac Paredes, and of course, the ever-dependable Jose Altuve, are packing some mean heat. With the batting averages these guys have, it looks like Minute Maid Park's high Park Factor will have a field day.
Now, if you look at the team's track record in the past, you'll notice the Rays and the Astros have had numerous dogfights. Let's call it pretty even-steven. But recently, it's the Astros who have been in a hot streak, making short work of Athletics and Mariners, whereas Rays have mostly fed on Twins and Blue Jays.
Tallying up the Regular Season win-loss situation, The Astros are ahead with 30 wins against the 28 of the Rays. But remember, sunshine, the baseball can swing either way and those numbers might not mean zip when the game's afoot.
So after all that jibber-jabber, I say - smart money's on Houston taking this one.
Albert’s Prediction: Houston Astros by 2