Astros vs. Rangers prediction and odds for Saturday, July 1 (Value on total)

The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers play Game 2 of a four-game set on Saturday afternoon after Houston stole the first meeting on the road on Friday. 

Saturday’s game should be a great pitching matchup with Astros youngster Hunter Brown (6-4, 3.62 ERA) taking on Nathan Eovaldi (9-3, 2.82 ERA). 

Texas has been the best scoring offense in baseball this season, but the team mustered just three runs on Friday night against Ronel Blancao and company. 

Is that a sign of things to come in this series?

Here is my best bet and the latest odds for Saturday’s matchup:

Astros vs. Rangers odds, spread and total

Astros vs. Rangers prediction and pick

Earlier this week, myself and Iain MacMillan made picks for each of the games in this series on the Baseball Betting Insiders show. 

In Game 2, I was leaning towards the under with this expected to be the pitching matchup, and I still love that pick today.

Brown was great in his last outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers, spinning six innings of one-run ball. 

The youngster has just a 1.19 WHIP on the season, and he pitched seven innings of two-run ball (zero earned runs) in his first outing against Texas this season. 

Eovaldi is also due for a bounce back after the Rangers lost his last three starts. He’s allowed fewer than four earned runs in 13 of his 16 starts this season, and the righty has a WHIP under 1.00 on the season. 

I expect both of these pitchers to thrive in this game, and I trust the Astros bullpen as well, which is top 10 in the league in ERA, to keep this low scoring.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.