The Houston Astros have won four of their last five games against the Los Angeles Angels. The Astros hope that these winning ways will continue this weekend when they face their division rivals in a three-game series that starts this Friday night.
Astros vs. Angels 2018 odds: AL West rivals meet Friday with Houston the betting favorite
The Houston Astros head to Anaheim in need of wins against the Angels in a tight race in the AL West, with the sportsbooks siding with the road team for the opener.
Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images
Houston is a -148 road betting favorite on the MLB odds for Friday’s series opener at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Dallas Keuchel gets the call for the Astros going up against Andrew Heaney and the Angels as +128 home underdogs.
Houston Astros at Los Angeles Angels
When: Friday, August 24, 10:07 p.m. ET
Where: Angel Stadium, Anaheim, California
Betting Line / Total: Houston -148 / 8.5 Runs
Houston Astros
The Astros tore through the beginning of August in the midst of a 6-1 run to improve to 73-42 on the season and it appeared as though they might be switching gears and getting ready to separate from the pack in the AL West.
Instead, the defending champs have gone just 4-8 since then, leaving the door open for the Oakland A’s to pull within one game of the division lead. This divisional battle now has the makings of a dogfight down the stretch making every game the Astros play the rest of the way a critical one.
Dallas Keuchel has been strong on the road this season with a 3.32 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP in 14 starts. The left-hander has led the Astros to a 9-2 record over his last 11 road starts.
Los Angeles Angels
The injury bug has hit Los Angeles hard in 2018. The Angels lost Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher in early June, have been without Mike Trout for all but one game in August and just sent Justin Upton to the disabled list earlier this week.
The injury-laden club actually put together an impressive run earlier this month of 7-2 over nine games, but six of those wins came against the lowly Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres. Los Angeles has dropped five of its last six since that short lived uptick.
Friday night’s total is set at 8.5 runs. The UNDER is 5-1-1 in the last seven games between the Angels and the Astros, according to the OddsShark MLB Database.
Houston enters this series with wins in each of its last two games on the road. Justin Verlander will take the mound on Saturday against Jaime Barria and Gerrit Cole squares off with Felix Pena in the series finale on Sunday.
For more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.
