Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Prediction For 4/13/2024

Texas Rangers vs Houston Astros Overview

• Date: April 13, 2024
• Venue: Minute Maid Park
• Starting Pitchers:
  • Andrew Heaney - Rangers
  • Ronel Blanco - Astros
• Run Line: Rangers 1.5 -160, Astros -1.5 135
• Money Line: Rangers 125, Astros -145
• Total (Over/Under):9.5 -110

Texas Rangers vs Houston Astros Win Probabilities

Implied Win %:

• Texas Rangers - 43%
• Houston Astros - 57%

Projected Win %:

• Texas Rangers - 45.99%
• Houston Astros - 54.01%

Texas Rangers vs Houston Astros Game Preview & Prediction

On April 13, 2024, the Houston Astros will face off against the Texas Rangers at Minute Maid Park. As the home team, the Astros will look to turn their struggling season around against their American League West rivals.

The Astros have had a tough start to the season, currently holding a record of 4-11. Their offense, which ranks as the 9th best in MLB, has not been able to find consistent success. Despite this, they have a powerful lineup capable of producing runs, ranking 9th in team home runs.

Pitching for the Astros will be Ronel Blanco, a right-handed pitcher. Blanco has started two games this season and has a perfect 2-0 record with an impressive 0.00 ERA. However, his peripheral indicators suggest that he has been lucky and may regress in future performances.

The Rangers, on the other hand, have had a solid start to the season with an 8-6 record. Their offense has been impressive, ranking 6th best in MLB. Led by their best hitter Evan Carter, the Rangers have shown prowess at the plate, ranking 2nd in team batting average and 5th in home runs.

Andrew Heaney, a left-handed pitcher, is projected to start for the Rangers. Heaney has struggled this season with an ERA of 7.56. However, his peripheral indicators suggest that he has been unlucky and could perform better in upcoming games.

Both teams have solid bullpens, with the Astros ranking 16th and the Rangers ranking 10th in MLB. This could lead to an interesting matchup late in the game, with both teams having the ability to shut down the opposing offense.

The Astros enter this game as the betting favorite with a moneyline of -145, implying a 57% chance of winning. The Rangers, as the underdogs, have a moneyline of +125 and a 43% chance of winning.

Quick Takes Texas Rangers:

With 7 batters who bat from the opposite side in the opposing team's projected batting order, Andrew Heaney will be at a disadvantage while lacking the platoon advantage in most plate appearances in this matchup.

• Right-handed pitchers perform worse against left-handed hitters (and visa-versa). If several hitters hold this advantage against the pitcher, it can have a huge impact on whether he will perform well or struggle on any given day.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Corey Seager as the 7th-best hitter in baseball as it relates to his batting average skill.

• THE BAT X is a highly sophisticated projection system that accounts for a multitude of factors and regularly tests among the most accurate systems available. Batting average is the most common measure of a player's ability to generate hits.

Jonah Heim pulls a lot of his flyballs (37.9% — 95th percentile) and has the misfortune of hitting them towards baseball's 9th-deepest RF fences in today's matchup.

• This player's skill set does not match up particularly well with the park he's in today, which may lead to worse-than-usual performance.

Quick Takes Houston Astros:

Alex Bregman's ability to hit the ball at a HR-optimizing launch angle (between 23° and 34°) has increased lately, going from 28.6% on the season to 100% over the past two weeks.

• Balls that are hit too low can't clear the fences, and balls that are hit too high generally don't go far enough and are easy pop flies, but balls hit between 23° and 34° are far more likely to become home runs.

According to the leading projection system (THE BAT), Yainer Diaz (the Astros's expected catcher today) projects as a horrible pitch framer.

• Pitch framing is a catcher's ability to make a ball look like a strike to the umpire, "stealing" strikes for his pitcher. This leads to more positive outcomes (like strikeouts) and fewer negative ones (like walks or earned runs).

Rangers vs Astros Prediction: Rangers 4.85 - Astros 5.01

For more on today's game check out the comprehensive statistics, betting odds, and trends below. Be sure to check out all our free MLB picks here.