Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Game 7 Betting Preview
It’s a winner-take-all all Game 7 on Monday, as the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros meet up in the American League Championship Series.
The winner of the series will head to the World Series, where they will take on the winner of the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks series from the National League.
The road team has won every game so far in this series. Houston comes into this game as the slight favorite, listed at -125 over the Texas Rangers.
Veteran Right Hander takes the Mound
The Texas Rangers will send Max Scherzer to the mound in this game. The 39-year-old has seen plenty of big games in his career, and this will be added to the list.
This will be his second postseason start, as he went four innings in Game 3 and took the loss to the Astros. Scherzer went four innings, allowing five hits and five runs in that game. Scherzer finished the 2023 regular season with a 13-6 record and a 3.77 earned run average.
Adolis Garcia hit the big blow in the game, a grand slam, but the Rangers as a team pounded out ten hits, including three from Mitch Garver. Garver drove in two runs in the game, while Corey Seager and Jonah Heim helped the cause as well.
The home run for Garcia was his fifth of the postseason, and he now has driven in 15 runs. He is hitting .277 for the Rangers, helping the offense.
Marcus Semien is a guy that the Rangers would like to see his bat come alive. Semien has yet to hit a home run during the postseason and has just nine hits in 47 at-bats. Texas as a team has clubbed 18 home runs during the first 11 games of their postseason.
Javier on the Hill for Houston
For the Houston Astros, Cristian Javier will get the start. The 26-year-old from the Dominican Republic is making his third postseason start and seeking his third win.
The right-hander went five innings at the Twins and 5.2 innings at the Rangers earlier in the series. He has allowed just two runs so far and struck out 12 batters. Javier was 10-5 with a 4.56 during the regular season.
The Astros, in their three losses in the series, have scored just a combined six runs. In the three wins, Houston poured in 23 runs. There is no doubt that the Houston Astros are going to want to make this an offensive outburst.
In the loss on Sunday, Houston picked up just six hits in the game, with Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, and Jose Abreu each picking up two.
The Astros offense needs help from other guys in the lineup, such as Alex Bregman, Jeremy Pena, and Kyle Tucker. Those three games are a combined 16 of 97, with just eight runs batted in between them.
Big Game Pitchers Leads to Great Game 7
Both pitchers have experience with big-time postseason games. This is going to be a fun one. How the managers will handle the bullpen is a big question mark. Will the offenses be ready to attack and not wait back and swing tentatively?
This is such a huge game, and these two teams are nearly identical. Look for both starters to get a great outing in, but late in the game, the Astros score off the Rangers bullpen and win this game.
We are going to bet the Houston Astros -125 over the Texas Rangers on Monday. Enjoy the big game, and best of luck!
