MLB Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Washington Nationals

Added on Sep 21, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

With another weekend of football betting behind us we’ll turn our attention back to Major League Baseball for Tuesday. In this post we’ll take a look at a National League game between the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals. At first glance we’ve got a couple of teams that are way out of playoff contention just playing out the string, but we thing there’s a good value position in this contest.

Houston Astros (Happ) at Washington Nationals (Lannan)
September 21, 2010 4:05 PM Pacific

Credit to the Houston Astros for maintaining a level of competitiveness when they easily could have quit for the year after the worst start in franchise history. They’ve pulled within 4 games of .500–a monumental achievement considering the big hole they dug in the first month of the season. They’ve even got a decent chance of running down St. Louis for 2nd place in the NL Central. The fact that they actually still care on a daily basis is enough reason to make a play on them against a Washington team that looks more and more like they’ve called it a year. Astros are 12-6 +5.6 units in September compared to the Nationals’ record of 5-12 -6.6 units so far this month.

The public ran away from Houston after their sluggish start, but their gutsy play since then combined with value prices have made them a very profitable team. YTD, Houston is 73-77 +16.5 units and on the road they’ve gone 32-40 +12.1 units. Making this spot even better is a great situational matchup for Houston facing lefthander John Lannen–the Astros have cleaned up against southpaws in 2010 to the tune of 27-14 +19.9 units. Lannen has pitched well of late, but just can’t ignore that pile of money that Houston has generated against LHP. Astros now 4-1 against Washington in 2010, and we’ll gladly take them in a great situational matchup at a ‘pick’em’ price.

Bet Houston Astros (Happ) -110 over Washington Nationals (Lannen)