MLB Predictions For Houston Astros vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

The Houston Astros will be facing Arizona Diamondbacks in three games that will run from Tuesday to Thursday. It's safe to say that neither team has looked overly dominant to this point. In Houston’s previous series, they took two of the three from the Angels while the Diamondbacks dropped two of three to the Dodgers. The game will be played at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.

But many Houston will be disappointed with the pitching change as it is not advised to pull out the same. Many were looking forward to seeing Zack Greinke make his return after being dealt from the Diamondbacks to the Astros nearly a year ago and performing well against the opponent. But they will have to wait for it after Houston opted to shuffle its rotation and send Brandon Bielak out for his first game.

‘Over’ Cashes 3 of Last 4 Astros Road Games

Houston’s rotation shuffle is delaying numbers for the game. The teams split the first two with Astros posting an 8-2 in Tuesday’ opener and Diamondbacks bouncing back with a 14-7 slugfest on Wednesday. Though he is still batting under .200, outfielder George Springer shows signs of a comeback by driving in five runs in the previous two games. 

Now it’s the matter of fact to wait for the game day and see the results. Arizona’s offense came alive in their win in the 2nd game. After scoring just nine runs in their last 4 games combined, they plated nine in the fourth inning alone which is not an easy task.

Before this series, the ‘under’ cashed six of the last seven matches at Chase Field, but the two ‘over’ winners went against the norm in recent meetings between them. Arizona began the set with seven of its first ten coming up short of the totals.

 Snakes Have Found Success With Gallen on Mound

 The decision to give Greinke an extra day off and pick Bielak was the result of Houston brass deciding to move Josh James back to the bullpen. That idea came when James was having a couple of terrible starts to the 2020 campaign, along with a need for more help after Roberto Osuna got elbow injury that will require surgery. James has now gone from being a disappointment to a candidate for save opportunities.

Houston’s 11th round pick in 2017, Bielak had some high numbers in his past three seasons while he quickly advanced through all the stops from Rookie League to Triple-A. The 25-year-old followed James in one start, and Lance McCullers in another.

Though his ledger shows no wins, each of his two starts wound up in Arizona’s win column. He had some control issues in his debut at San Diego where he walked five in four frames, but only surrendered one run in the process. Gallen followed up with six strong innings last Friday, striking out nine and surrendering two runs with one of those being a Mookie Betts solo shot. Gallen’s first outing will be on Thursday.

Diamondbacks Down In The Cellar 

Any hopes of Arizona Diamondbacks having a good season has gone to the wayside. They have fallen 4.5 games back in the NL West, and it doesn’t look like they will get better anytime soon. They have not been able to hit the ball as they rank 28th in 28th in batting average and 29th in runs scored per game. Veteran Madison Bumgarner will make his third start for Arizona, and his command has not been wrong, but his velocity is a problem. 

His average is only 87.9 MPH with his fastball over his two starts. This is the lowest average ever in his career. He has tossed 11 innings and has allowed five runs on eight hits and four walks with nine strikeouts. He is doing an excellent job of keeping the ball in the park as he has given only one home run.

The Pick 

Houston will be the best option as nothing about Arizona has been good so far. Both their pitching and hitting rank is near the bottom in the league. Houston will start Cristian Javier, who will become very successful in a few years. The prospect made his debut against a dangerous Dodgers team and held them to one run in two hits and one walk in 5.2 innings with eight strikeouts. Arizona’s lineup is not as strong as that of the Dodgers, and Javier will make easy work of them.

Prediction: Houston Astros Alt. RL-2.5 Runs