San Francisco Giants vs Texas Rangers Prediction, Preview, & Odds – 6/8/2024

San Francisco Giants vs Texas Rangers Details

• Date: June 8, 2024
• Venue: Globe Life Field
• Starting Pitchers:
  • Undecided - Giants
  • Andrew Heaney - Rangers

San Francisco Giants vs Texas Rangers Betting Preview

The Texas Rangers will host the San Francisco Giants at Globe Life Field on June 8, 2024, in the second game of their Interleague series. Both teams are having below-average seasons, with the Rangers holding a 30-33 record and the Giants slightly better at 31-33. This game will be started by left-hander Andrew Heaney for the Rangers, while the Giants have yet to decide on a starting pitcher for this contest.

Heaney, who has a 3.99 ERA this season, has been a workhorse for the Rangers but has struggled with a 2-6 Win/Loss record. His projections for this game are average across the board, expecting him to pitch around 5.0 innings, allowing 2.5 earned runs, and striking out 5.9 batters. However, he's expected to struggle with control and hits, allowing 1.7 walks and 4.5 hits on average.

Offensively, the Rangers rank 15th in MLB, while the Giants are slightly better at 14th. The Rangers have been average in batting average and home runs but struggle with stolen bases, ranking 28th. The Giants excel with the 9th-best team batting average but lack power, ranking 21st in home runs and dead last in stolen bases.

The bullpens could play a decisive role in this matchup. The Rangers' bullpen is ranked 18th, whereas the Giants boast the 2nd-best bullpen according to advanced-stat Power Rankings. This disparity suggests the Giants have a significant advantage if the game is close late.

In recent form, Marcus Semien has been the Rangers' standout hitter over the past week, batting .429 with a 1.175 OPS. Heliot Ramos has been scorching hot for the Giants, hitting .455 with a 1.450 OPS, including three home runs and seven RBIs over the last week.

Given these factors, the Giants may have a slight edge, especially if they can get a decent start from whomever they decide to throw in this game and the bullpen continues its dominance. However, both teams have shown inconsistencies, making this an intriguing matchup for bettors and fans alike.

Quick Takes San Francisco Giants:

Michael Conforto has a good chance to have the upper hand against every reliever for the whole game, since the bullpen of the Texas Rangers only has 1 same-handed RP.

• Hitters perform worse against pitchers of the same handedness (i.e. righty-vs-righty), and being able to avoid those matchups against the bullpen boosts performance and creates hidden edge.

The San Francisco Giants have been the 6th-luckiest offense in baseball this year, according to the leading projection system (THE BAT X), and are likely to negatively regress going forward

• When teams overperform their projected talent level, markets may overvalue them even while they are likely to perform worse in the near future.

Quick Takes Texas Rangers:

Andrew Heaney's fastball velocity has decreased 1.3 mph this season (90.6 mph) below where it was last season (91.9 mph).

• Velocity is a key component to fastball success in generating strikeouts and preventing runs, so a pitcher whose velocity decreases will likely see worse results.

Josh Smith has been lucky this year, putting up a .353 wOBA despite the leading projection system (THE BAT X) estimating his true talent level to be .309 — a .044 difference.

• Players that are overperforming should be expected to play worse going forward, which can create value on prop Unders if the lines are too heavily weighing the lucky, to-date overperformance.

Texas's 89.8-mph average exit velocity since the start of last season ranks among the elite in the game: #2 overall.

• Hitting the ball hard increases the chances of either a home run or the ball landing in fair territory for a hit before a fielder can get to it.

Game Trends

• The Texas Rangers have hit the Game Total Under in 38 of their last 63 games (+14.05 Units / 20% ROI)
• The San Francisco Giants have hit the Game Total Over in 16 of their last 23 games (+8.25 Units / 32% ROI)
• Thairo Estrada has hit the Total Bases Under in 8 of his last 13 away games (+1.90 Units / 11% ROI)

San Francisco Giants vs Texas Rangers Prediction

Final Score: San Francisco Giants 4.36 vs Texas Rangers 4.47

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