‘Triple-A’ Houston Astros losing touch, bettors aren’t jumping on by The Gaming Today’s Micah Roberts

The Houston Astros are not only giving all their star players away, they’re giving away cash on a nightly basis from the play of their current “Triple-A” roster.

Yet, for some reason, bettors aren’t jumping on all of their opponents like they do in betting the Red Sox, Phillies and Yankees to win on a regular basis.

If we look at the entire body of play on the season, the Astros’ 83 losses are five ahead of the Phillies’ win total and 10 up on the Red Sox and Yankees.

The high money-line against the Astros scares off a lot people, but betting against them on the run-line has proved to be one of the hottest wagers in baseball next to the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Astros are 14-19 in one-run games this season which is the third lowest amount of one-run games in the NL behind the Dodgers (17-15) and Pirates (15-17).

Since the All-Star break the Astros have been allowing clubs to pummel them with great consistency going 8-21. Of those 21 losses, 18 have been by two-runs or more.

Over that span, their best pitchers have been Bud Norris and Wandy Rodriguez, who the Astros have combined to go 5-7 with in their starts. This leaves you Brett Myers, Henry Sosa and Jordan Lyles to pick against on a regular basis while also getting tremendous value against them on the run-line.

Most of the Astros’ splits from the money-line to the run-line are over $1. Their opponents may be a -215 favorite, but the run-line will be only -105 depending on whether they’re at home or on the road.

Take this in comparison with the Phillies, Red Sox and Yankees on the road where their run-line splits are considerably lower just because of price being built on the popularity of those teams.

I had thought when J.A, Happ was sent down that the party would be over because he was so reliable to bet against, but Lyles made a name for himself as a pretty reliable bet-against.

Lyles made his debut on May 31, defeating the Cubs at Wrigley allowing only two runs in seven innings of work in a 7-3 win. Since then, the Astros have lost 12 of 13 games with him on the mound.

The most interesting race in baseball now is the NL West with the Diamondbacks holding a two game lead over the defending world champion San Francisco.

The Giants had played their “torture” game of beating everyone by one-run (28-16) to perfection until about three weeks ago and then their style started working against them.

The timely hits weren’t coming and starting pitching wasn’t holding teams in the same fashion they had the last two seasons. They were hitting a few homers here and there, but with no one on base. They set an all-time MLB record with 21 straight solo shots, which indicates the lapse they’re in right now.

Carlos Beltran has done nothing since his arrival, a date that coincides with the Giants demise. While all this is going on, the D’Backs just keep playing energized baseball under the leadership of baseball’s biggest gamer, Kirk Gibson.

Arizona has ridden Cy Young candidate Ian Kennedy’s back since the All-Star break as he’s won seven straight starts.

The D’backs get a major test this week facing two of the three teams with better records than them on the road. They play at Philadelphia and Atlanta for a couple of three game sets.

One of the most amazing streaks in baseball continued over the weekend as the Pirates got swept again in Milwaukee giving the Bucs losses in 34 of their last 36 games at Miller Park. The Pirates are 0-8 this season against the Brewers and face them again next week in Pittsburgh for 4.

The Brewers continue to roll as they’ve won 16 of 18 games and have a nice five game lead over the Cardinals in the NL Central. Of those 16 wins, 13 have been by two-runs or more.

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