Baseball Betting Picks: San Diego Padres at Houston Astros

Added on Apr 14, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

Big card of baseball betting action for Friday and we’ll get started in the National League where the San Diego Padres play the Houston Astros in the second of a four game series. The Padres are 5-6 heading into Thursday night’s series opener while the Astros have struggled out of the gate again this year posting a 3-9 record.

San Diego Padres (Harang) at Houston Astros (Happ)
April 15, 2011 5:05 PM Pacific

The Padres are getting very good pitching this season and are currently #4 in team ERA in the MLB with a 3.03 mark. Unfortunately, they’re not getting much help at the plate. San Diego is averaging 3.54 runs per game and rank #26 in MLB in runs scored. Even worse is their team batting average of .214 which is #29 overall. The loss of Adrian Gonzalez was expected to produce a dip in the Padres’ offensive productivity but nothing like the team has experienced so far.

The good news, however, is that they should be able to generate some offense against a Houston pitching staff that has been awful to this point. The Astros have the third worst team ERA in baseball (5.57) and J.A. Happ has a 6.17 ERA. The lanky lefthander has started two games and turned in a very good outing and a dismal performance–he was shelled in his first start of the year giving up 7 hits and 7 ER in 4 innings to Cincinnati but looked very good in his next start allowing 4 hits and 1 ER in 7 innings of work at home against Florida. Houst0n’s bullpen has provided much support either with a 4.75 ERA heading into Thursday’s game.

We generally like the young talent that the Astros are assembling and are big on manager Brad Mills but we’ll back the visiting Padres here. Veteran Aaron Harang has looked extremely sharp so far with a 2-0 record and 1.50 ERA. San Diego was a great road investment in 2010 posting a profit of +17.45 units. They went 5-2 +190 against Houston in 2010 though the Astros hold the series lead both overall and at home since 2008. The longer term head to head results mean little given the turnover in personnel in Houston and we’ll back Harang and the Padres here.

Bet San Diego Padres (Harang) -105 over Houston Astros (Happ)