Rays vs. Astros MLB Picks and Predictions

Just in time to help us into a playoff mood, the Tampa Bay Rays and Houston Astros meet on Tuesday’s sports betting card in a potential preview of the American League Championship Series.

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Houston Astros

Tuesday, September 28, 2021 – 8:10 PM ET at Minute Maid Park

Tampa Bay and Houston each took Monday off in advance of the final week of regular season action, and the clubs begin this series with the top two records in the American League. They’re trending in opposite directions, however, with the Rays looking to extend a four-game win streak as the series gets underway while the Astros are hoping to end a four-game skid.

Should Tampa Bay and Houston eventually meet in the ALCS, don’t expect Tuesday’s starting pitchers to lead the series off. The Rays hand the ball to Michael Wacha (3-5, 5.49) while Jose Urquidy (8-3, 3.56) takes the mound for the Astros, and top sportsbooks have Houston priced around -130 on the moneyline with a nine-run total that generally favors the ‘over.’

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Can Rays Reach 100-Win Plateau?

With the AL East Division already clinched, the Rays now set their sights on securing home field advantage throughout the American League playoffs. One win in Houston would accomplish that, and a sweep would push Tampa Bay to 100 dubyas on the season. The Rays own the best road record in the American League at 45-30.

This is going to be Wacha’s first start in nearly two weeks after the 30-year-old worked in a bulk relief role last week. He pitched the final three innings of last Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, allowing one run on three hits with four strikeouts. That contest closed as a pick at (visit our Sportsbook Review), and Wacha’s two previous appearances came as a starter on the road at Detroit and Toronto (11 IP, 7 ER combined), both of those matchups going into Tampa Bay’s loss column.

Wacha faced the Astros as a bulk reliever at Houston in early-May, working 2.2 IP and allowing four runs. He left with the Rays trailing, but they came back to take Wacha off the hook in a 5-4 final. His only other time to pitch against Houston came in long relief while he was with the Cardinals in 2019. Wacha is 1-4 with a 6.56 ERA in 12 starts and two relief outings on the road.

Houston Can Clinch AL West Tuesday Night

Houston just wrapped up a road trip out west with a tough series against the A’s. The Astros dropped the final four games of the swing through Anaheim and Oakland, three of the losses being 1-run games and the Athletics winning the last two in walk-off fashion. A win Tuesday and a Seattle loss would give Houston its fourth division crown in five years.

After missing July and August with a shoulder injury, Urquidy has returned to the Houston rotation with a mixed bag as he ramps up his pitch count. The bottom line is the Astros won three of his four trips to the mound this month, and stand 12-6 in Urquidy’s 18 assignments on the season. Gifted with a 10-1 lead last Tuesday in Anaheim, Urquidy ran into trouble in the sixth but still got the dubya as -180 chalk on the MLB betting odds.

Urquidy was outstanding when he faced the Rays a few months ago in Houston, working seven scoreless frames and allowing just four hits in the 3-1 final. He went up against Tampa Bay twice in last year’s ALCS, once as a starter and the other time out of the bullpen to combine for seven innings and two earned runs allowed. He also faced the Rays as a reliever in one of the 2019 ALDS contests, and is 4-1 with a 3.15 ERA in eight starts at Minute Maid Park this season.

Jose Urquidy #65 of the Houston Astros delivers a pitch. Julio Aguilar/Getty Images/AFP

Clubs Collide in Houston for First Time Since 2019 ALDS

If this is a preview of the upcoming ALCS, it will be the second time the clubs clashed for the pennant. Tampa Bay topped Houston in a seven-game thriller last year, those games played at Petco Park in San Diego due to the pandemic. They met at Tropicana Field nearly five months ago when the Astros took two of three from the Rays, ‘over’ bettors also cashing twice. The last time the clubs played at Minute Maid Park was in 2019 during the ALDS. Houston won all three games on the diamond, with totals locked in a betting menage a trois (1-1-1 O/U/P).

With better than a 50% chance of rain in the Houston area on Tuesday, expect Minute Maid Park to be buttoned up for the series opener, and probably the entire series. My free MLB pick is on the visitors in Tuesday’s tilt.

MLB Pick:

*The pick reflects the line at the moment the writer made the play, the odds at the beginning of this article show the live line movement. Since the lines might vary, don’t forget to refer back to our live odds.