Houston Astros @ Cleveland Indians Matchup Preview - August 5th, 2022
Editor
The Houston Astros enter the game as the 8th ranked team per THE BAT X's Power Rankings and will battle the 20th ranked Guardians at Progressive Field. The Astros rank 3rd in MLB in home runs and will likely lean on that power in their attempt to win today. If the Guardians want to win they'll need to generate more power than they've mustered thus far, as they rank 29th in home runs this season.
Houston Astros Insights
Given that groundball pitchers perform best against groundball hitters, Framber Valdez (61.8% GB% via THE BAT projections) is well-situated in this matchup with 2 GB hitters in the opposition's projected offense.
Martin Maldonado has taken a step back with his Barrel% of late; his 8.9% seasonal rate has fallen off to 0% over the last 14 days.
Jose Altuve has a high pull rate on his flyballs (40.9% — 99th percentile) and has the good fortune of hitting them towards the game's 3rd-shallowest LF fences today.
Cleveland Indians Insights
Hunter Gaddis has a reverse platoon split and will be disadvantaged facing 8 same-handed bats today.
Owen Miller's average exit velocity has dropped off of late; his 86.2-mph seasonal mark has dropped to 80.2-mph in the past 7 days.
Projected catcher Luke Maile projects as a good pitch framer, per THE BAT projection system.
Betting Trends
The Cleveland Guardians have hit the 1st Five Innings (F5) Total Over in 12 of their last 17 games (+7.55 Units / 40% ROI)
The Houston Astros have hit the 1st Five Innings (F5) Run Line in 58 of their last 91 games (+19.10 Units / 17% ROI)
Alex Bregman has hit the RBIs Under in his last 8 away games (+8.00 Units / 42% ROI)