POWER SPORTS' AL WEST TOTAL OF THE MONTH (DAY GAME)
(MLB) LA Angels vs. Houston, 07/02/2022 4:10 PM, Score: 1 - 9
Total: 8.50 | -110.00 Under
Result: Loss
9* Under Angels/Astros (4:10 ET): This division matchup saw the home team (Houston) come out ahead on Friday, 8-1, in a rather lopsided affair. The Angels, now 13.5 games back of the ‘Stros in the AL West, will look to even up the series on Saturday with Patrick Sandoval on the mound. Sandoval has been the team’s most reliable starter outside of Shohei Ohtani with a 2.63 ERA for the year and he’s allowed 2 ER or less in six of his last seven outings. But the problem for the Halos is that they have now gone seven straight games without scoring more than four runs. I like taking Unders in divisional battles and that certainly looks like the right play here.

Houston’s lineup hadn’t exactly been hitting the cover off the ball recently; they’ve scored three runs or less in five of the last seven games. There was a bit of “cluster luck” yesterday with a six-run third inning, something I certainly don’t think we’ll see be repeated today. When Sandoval faced the Astros back in April, all he allowed was an unearned run in four innings of work. Also, the Under is 7-3-2 in Sandoval’s starts this season and none of the last three have seen more than eight totals runs scored. Houston came into this series having hit a collective .223 over the last week.

While I think they’ll certainly do a better job with run suppression this afternoon, the problem for the Angels here is obviously going to be at the plate. It doesn’t help that Astros’ pitching has been downright filthy of late. Cristian Javier struck out 14 Angels last night. It was the sixth time in seven games that the Astros allowed one or zero runs! Look for Jose Urquidy to keep the trend going as he has a 0.737 WHIP his L3 starts, all quality outings. His last time out, the only hit Urquidy allowed in 7 IP was a solo home run. That was against the Yankees. In fact, he just held two of the three highest scoring teams in baseball (Yankees & Mets) to two runs and five hits in 13 IP. 9* Under Angels/Astros