Astros vs. Pirates prediction and odds for Wednesday, April 12 (Trust Houston vs. Rich Hill)

The Astros and Pirates wrap up a three-game early week series on Wednesday afternoon.

Houston's offense has thrived on left handed pitching in the early part of the season, and will try to build on that against veteran Rich Hill, who is hanging onto his rotation job with the Pirates after a slow start to the year.

Pittsburgh was dealt a tough blow over the weekend, losing Oneil Cruz to a fractured ankle for most if not the entire season. Can they compete with the defending World Series champs, or is the team's hot start going to be a distant memory after losing Cruz?

Here are the odds for the series finale in Pittsburgh:

Astros vs. Pirates odds, run line and total

Astros vs. Pirates prediction and pick

The 43-year-old Hill has had a great career, but he's far from a high level MLB pitcher at this point.

Hill has allowed 10 earned runs in nine innings of work, including a big league high five home runs. It only gets more difficult for him against an Astros offense that feasts off lefties, third in slugging percentage this season. If you need more reason to believe, the team was second in slugging in 2022, so the small sample size holds up.

Houston has some powerful bats in the lineup, and Yordan Alvarez is likely going to catch a Hill curveball and send it deep. Over his career, he is hitting .305 and has an OPS of .966 in his career against southpaws.

I expect Hill to be pulled early and the Pirates bullpen is going to be too taxed to keep the Astros off the scoreboard.

While Jose Uqruidy is a back of the rotation arm, I do believe he can keep the runs to a minimum against a Pirates lineup without one of its most dangerous players in the batter's box in Cruz. The offense was pushing league average, but is primed to slide back towards the bottom third for the rest of the year.

Hill is too much of a liability on the mound now to trust, take the Astros on the run line.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.