Houston Looks to Extend Winning Streak Over Cleveland on Tuesday

The Houston Astros are 6-2 in their last eight home games against the Cleveland Indians, including Monday night’s 4-3 win. The Astros will look to extend their current winning streak against the Indians to seven games with another victory at home on Tuesday night.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

The Astros opened as -182 favorites and have seen the line move only slightly to Houston -179. The Indians are going off as +165 road underdogs and the total has settled in at 9 runs since Sportsbook at 9.5 runs. The UNDER is 5-1 in Cleveland’s last six road games against the Astros.

Starting Pitchers Analysis

Triston McKenzie had his best outing of the season in his last trip to the mound against the Kansas City Royals, allowing only one hit and one walk across seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts. This was a welcome step in the right direction after McKenzie had been sent down to the minor leagues on a rehab assignment with a disappointing 6.38 ERA on the season. McKenzie now sports a 5.47 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP.

Luis Garcia has been sharp all season with a 3.06 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP and 97 strikeouts in 85.1 innings. The Astros improved to 8-2 in Garcia’s last 10 starts with their 4-3 win over the Oakland Athletics before the all-star break. Garcia has a 2.50 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP in 50.1 innings at home this season.

Cleveland News & Notes

The Indians lost nine straight games right before the all-star break, including all four games of a four-game series at home against the Astros. Cleveland bounced back from that long losing streak with a 5-1 run before suffering another loss to Houston on Monday night. Each of the Indians’ last three games against the Astros has been a one-run affair, but Cleveland keeps ending up on the wrong side of it.

Cleveland enters Tuesday’s action with a 47-44 record, 4.5 games behind the Oakland Athletics for the second wild-card spot in the American League. It will be interesting to see over the next 10 days if the Indians consider themselves contenders and look to improve ahead of the MLB trade deadline or if they are willing to sell and shift their attention to next year and beyond.

Houston News & Notes

Yordan Alvarez was mired in an 0-for-22 slump before breaking out of it in fashion with a two-run home run on Monday night. The win was also a slump-buster for the Astros overall as Houston entered the game with a 2-5 record over its previous seven games. Houston’s offense has been inconsistent over the last couple of weeks with 19 total runs in its last three wins and two total runs in its last five losses.

It’s difficult to find any major flaws on this 57-38 Astros ream that ranks No. 1 in the majors in run production with 5.35 runs per game and No. 9 in the majors in team ERA at 3.64. But the bullpen has been Houston’s one weak link in 2021 with a 4.13 ERA and is the area the team is most likely to address in the trade market.

Betting Pick: UNDER 9.5 runs