Oakland As vs. Houston Astros Pick 4/6/19

The Astros are off to a slow start to this season but won the opener of a three-game series with AL West rival Oakland Friday night. Which way are we going with our free MLB pick for Saturday?

MLB Betting Odds

Saturday’s MLB betting odds opened Houston and Miley at around -150 over Oakland and Brooks, with an over/under of 8.5 runs. Early betting action then dipped that line about a nickel, to the -145 range at most sports betting sites.

A’s vs. Astros Set-Up

Houston took the opener of this series Friday night 3-2, winning as a -165 favorite. The Astros broke a 1-1 tie on a Carlos Correa solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, added another run in the seventh and hung on from there.

Also, Friday’s game played under its total of 8.5 runs.

Earlier this week Oakland took three of four games from defending World Series champion Boston, with the pitching staff tossing two shutouts.

Houston, meanwhile, dropped two of three games earlier this week at Texas.

Last year the Astros took the season series from the A’s 12 games to seven.

Saturday’s Starting Arms

Lefty Miley (0-1, 4.50) opened this season with a rather typical effort for him, allowing three runs and eight hits through six innings of a 3-1 loss to Tampa Bay last Sunday. But it only took him 87 pitches to get 18 outs, which isn’t too bad.

Last year, pitching for Milwaukee, Miley finished just 6/16 on quality starts. But that ratio would have been better if not for a short leash; six times Miley got within three outs of a QS but got pulled. The Brewers went 12-4 with Miley, with the overs going 9-7.

This will be Miley’s first start against Oakland since 2017 when as an Oriole he held the A’s to two ER through 13 innings of two outings.

Brooks (1-0, 0.00) opened this season with a very winning effort, holding Boston scoreless on two hits through six innings, with one walk and six strikeouts, of a 7-0 Oakland win Monday. He needed 86 pitches to get 18 outs.

Brooks “earned” that start by posting a 4.40 ERA over 14 1/3 innings at Spring Training.

This will be Brooks’ first start against Houston since 2015, and that’s already a long time ago.

Saturday’s Batting Splits

Oakland is hitting .254/.327/.493 against left-handed pitching this season.

Houston is hitting just .231/.306/.318 against right-handed pitching this season, although you’d expect those numbers to begin to improve any time now.

The Bullpens

The A’s bullpen has allowed 17 ER on 35 hits and 17 walks through 41 1/3 innings of work this season.

The Astros bullpen has allowed just five ER on 14 hits and three walks through 20 1/3 innings this season.

Totals Report

• The unders are 8-3 in A’s games this season.
• The unders are 7-1 in Astros games this season.
• The overs finished 12-5-2 in A’s-Astros games last season.
• The unders finished 42-37-2 in games played at Minute Maid Park last season, which averaged 8.2 runs per.