Xam’s Daily Gem:
Astros -1 -159 DraftKings
It took a long time, but the Astros are FINALLY turning their season around. They’ve won 6 of their last 7 games and 4 straight. Not only are they hitting, but they’re getting better pitching performances too! They’ve held opponents to 3 runs or less in all of their wins during this winning streak! Tonight, they turn to Cristian Javier, who’s looking to put an ugly start his last time out behind him. He got blasted for 7 earned runs in just 1.1 innings of work. However, it’s been a different story at home. In 3 starts at Minute Maid Park this year, he has a sparkling 1.00 ERA! In 2 of those 3 starts, he didn’t allow any runs at all! He’s been good at home throughout his Astros career, pitching to a 2.74 home ERA in his career. The Athletics counter with righty Joey Estes, who makes his 2nd start of the year. He got his first major league win in Seattle his last time out and pitched, but this is an entirely different matchup. The A’s also aren’t scoring a lot of runs. They’re averaging just 3.77 runs per game on the year. They were shutout yesterday and have 3 times in their last 3 games. Also, the Astros gave almost their entire bullpen the day off yesterday thanks to elite pitching performances by Framber Valdez and Seth Martinez, so everyone else SHOULD be available and ready to go! If the Astros can keep their bats going, Javier shouldn’t have ANY ISSUES returning to form and containing an A’s lineup that’s not doing much right now.
5/15 Premium POD: Rangers ML -154 Win +0.65 Units