Astros vs. Athletics Prediction and Odds for Saturday, July 9 (Recipe for a Houston Blowout in Oakland)

The last-place Oakland Athletics host the first-place Houston Astros in the second matchup of this series today at 4:07 PM EST.

Houston is one of the most dominant teams in baseball and sends one of the most consistently dominant pitchers in baseball to the mound in Framber Valdez. The 28-year-old lefty hopes for his 14th consecutive quality start, bringing a 1.69 road ERA into the contest.

Zach Logue makes his sixth start for the A's with a slightly less dominant resume. Over his last two starts, Logue gave up 11 runs with some truly horrific underlying metrics. His 7.75 expected ERA on the season would easily be the worst in MLB if he had enough innings to qualify.

Is this pick as simple as it seems on paper? Let's find out by first checking out the odds from WynnBET Sportsbook:

Astros vs Athletics Odds, Run Line and Total

Run Line:

• Astros -1.5 (-195)
• Athletics +1.5 (+160)

Moneyline:

• Astros: -310
• Athletics: +270

Total:

• 8.5 (Over +100/Under -120)

Astros vs Athletics Prediction and Pick

The only way Oakland stays even moderately competitive in this game is if Framber Valdez and Zach Logue celebrate Lindsay Lohan's gift by doing a secret live reenactment of Freaky Friday.

Seriously, this line could be Astros -4.5 and I still might back Houston. Valdez represents such a massive advantage over Logue that I almost think he should try pitching with the opposite hand just to be fair.

This should get ugly for Oakland. Though if I'm being honest, they deserve it for calling Zach Logue up clearly before the poor guy was ready. He compiled a 5.22 ERA in the minors, and now he makes his first start in the big leagues since giving up four runs in 2.1 innings to the Rangers back in May. Perhaps minor league hitters are worse than MLB ones and he's ready to dominate now?

Oh wait, Houston leads the league in OPS against left-handed pitchers over the last three weeks. Oops. Surely the Athletics' brass believes in their lineup to give Logue run support then, right? Silly me, Oakland's OPS against lefties ranks second-to-last in MLB over that same time frame.

When you consider Houston also has the superior defense and bullpen, it becomes difficult to make any case in the A's favor.

Rush to WynnBET before they realize I'm onto something with this Astros -4.5 idea. Lock Houston in and thank our lucky stars that Oakland seemingly decided to leave today with a big loss. But given the odds, I'm looking to play an alternate line of -2.5 to maximize our return.

Pick: Astros -2.5 (-115)

Follow all of Joe Summers' betting picks here.