MLB odds Make Oswalt and Astros Small Favorites at Royals
Amidst the still-swirling trade rumors, Roy Oswalt will take to the Kauffman Stadium mound Wednesday night in Kansas City when the Astros take on the Royals.
This is one of those baseball games that separates the real fans from the casual followers. Two teams that are scraping by at or very near the bottom of their divisions, and with no real prospects of improving those standings by season's end, will do battle at Kauffman Stadium.
It's also a contest that will separate the public bettors from the action junkies. Houston enters the middle game of the series with a 25-40 record and down 7.0 units on the money line. Kansas City sits 28-37 on the year and right at level on the money line.
The earliest of baseball odds released Tuesday afternoon made Roy Oswalt (5-8, 3.16) and the Astros the 120-125 favorites against Bruce Chen (2-1, 4.01) and the Royals. The total for Game 2 was released at 8 ½.
Game 1 saw Kansas City score seven runs with two outs in the fifth, eventually skating to the 15-7 win as 116 chalk. It was a rare explosion of offense for both teams after two of their three 2009 encounters went 'under' with the third a 'push.'
A lack of support for Oswalt was the story earlier this season, which prompted the right-hander to have his agent ask the Astros to explore trading him to a contender. Of course that got all of the talking heads on ESPN to begin speculating where Oswalt was headed. So far, no trade appears to be in the works.
Support really has not been the issue lately when Oswalt is on the hill with Houston scoring 14 runs in his last three starts. That's well above their 3.36 per game average, a figure that has been climbing steadily in the past couple of weeks.
Oswalt has pitched very well on the road, though this is just his fifth away assignment. He's posted a 3-1 record with a 1.24 ERA in the previous four road outings.
This will be his third career start versus the Royals, with Houston 1-1 in the other two. Oswalt picked up a no decision in Houston when the two teams got together a year ago. The pride of Weir, Mississippi, tossed six innings and allowed just one run before turning it over to his bullpen which promptly coughed the lead up with KC winning 4-3 in 11 innings.
Chen is pitching for his 10th major league team, and 11th franchise, after beginning his big league days with the Braves in 1998. The 32-year-old Panamanian even spent a little time with Houston back in 2003.
The lefty started the year in Kansas City's pen for 10 relief outings before entering the rotation at the end of May when Gil Meche (shoulder) went on the DL. This will be Chen's fourth start with the Royals winning the last two, a 7-3 decision at home over the Tigers and a 9-8 contest in Minnesota on June 10 in which the KC bullpen almost let the Twins rally from an 8-1 deficit.
Adrian Johnson, now in just his third full big league season, will be calling the pitches for this one. For those who love conspiracy theories, Johnson is a native of Houston and home underdogs this season are 1-5 when he's behind the plate.
Wednesday's weather in KC calls for a slight chance of rain. Game time should find the thermometer in the upper-70s, low-80s with a SSE wind at 5-10 mph (1B out to LF corner).
This series concludes Thursday evening when Brett Myers (7-6, 3.18) will chunk for Houston against Kansas City's Luke Hochevar (7-6, 4.96). The Royals will then take off on a six-game road trip that begins this weekend in Atlanta while the Astros head back to Houston for a six-game homestand that begins with the Texas Rangers.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
Amidst the still-swirling trade rumors, Roy Oswalt will take to the Kauffman Stadium mound Wednesday night in Kansas City when the Astros take on the Royals.
This is one of those baseball games that separates the real fans from the casual followers. Two teams that are scraping by at or very near the bottom of their divisions, and with no real prospects of improving those standings by season's end, will do battle at Kauffman Stadium.
It's also a contest that will separate the public bettors from the action junkies. Houston enters the middle game of the series with a 25-40 record and down 7.0 units on the money line. Kansas City sits 28-37 on the year and right at level on the money line.
The earliest of baseball odds released Tuesday afternoon made Roy Oswalt (5-8, 3.16) and the Astros the 120-125 favorites against Bruce Chen (2-1, 4.01) and the Royals. The total for Game 2 was released at 8 ½.
Game 1 saw Kansas City score seven runs with two outs in the fifth, eventually skating to the 15-7 win as 116 chalk. It was a rare explosion of offense for both teams after two of their three 2009 encounters went 'under' with the third a 'push.'
A lack of support for Oswalt was the story earlier this season, which prompted the right-hander to have his agent ask the Astros to explore trading him to a contender. Of course that got all of the talking heads on ESPN to begin speculating where Oswalt was headed. So far, no trade appears to be in the works.
Support really has not been the issue lately when Oswalt is on the hill with Houston scoring 14 runs in his last three starts. That's well above their 3.36 per game average, a figure that has been climbing steadily in the past couple of weeks.
Oswalt has pitched very well on the road, though this is just his fifth away assignment. He's posted a 3-1 record with a 1.24 ERA in the previous four road outings.
This will be his third career start versus the Royals, with Houston 1-1 in the other two. Oswalt picked up a no decision in Houston when the two teams got together a year ago. The pride of Weir, Mississippi, tossed six innings and allowed just one run before turning it over to his bullpen which promptly coughed the lead up with KC winning 4-3 in 11 innings.
Chen is pitching for his 10th major league team, and 11th franchise, after beginning his big league days with the Braves in 1998. The 32-year-old Panamanian even spent a little time with Houston back in 2003.
The lefty started the year in Kansas City's pen for 10 relief outings before entering the rotation at the end of May when Gil Meche (shoulder) went on the DL. This will be Chen's fourth start with the Royals winning the last two, a 7-3 decision at home over the Tigers and a 9-8 contest in Minnesota on June 10 in which the KC bullpen almost let the Twins rally from an 8-1 deficit.
Adrian Johnson, now in just his third full big league season, will be calling the pitches for this one. For those who love conspiracy theories, Johnson is a native of Houston and home underdogs this season are 1-5 when he's behind the plate.
Wednesday's weather in KC calls for a slight chance of rain. Game time should find the thermometer in the upper-70s, low-80s with a SSE wind at 5-10 mph (1B out to LF corner).
This series concludes Thursday evening when Brett Myers (7-6, 3.18) will chunk for Houston against Kansas City's Luke Hochevar (7-6, 4.96). The Royals will then take off on a six-game road trip that begins this weekend in Atlanta while the Astros head back to Houston for a six-game homestand that begins with the Texas Rangers.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!