{"id":2983,"date":"2018-06-28T14:21:32","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T14:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/?p=2983"},"modified":"2024-07-17T13:09:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T13:09:06","slug":"american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/","title":{"rendered":"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two of the hottest teams in baseball begin a four-game series Thursday night as the Tampa Bay Rays host the Houston Astros. The Astros took two of three games from the Rays in <strong><b><em><a href=\"https:\/\/offshoresportsbooks.com\/review\/mybookie\/\">the Houston Astros are big favorites at -158 over Tampa Bay on Thursday.<\/a><\/em><\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since that series against the <strong>Astros<\/strong> last week, the <strong>Rays<\/strong> have come home and won five games in a row. They swept the Yankees in a three-game set and then took a pair of games against the Nationals. <strong>Tampa<\/strong> is still one game under .500 and 10 games out of a playoff spot, but they playing good baseball at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the <strong>Astros<\/strong> have been playing good baseball all season, particularly during the month of June. The Astros have won 17 of their last 20 games,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.spokesman.com\/stories\/2018\/jun\/19\/mlb-capsules-rays-snap-astros-12-game-winning-stre\/\"> including a 12-game winning streak that the <strong>Rays<\/strong> snapped last week.<\/a> Houston continues to hold a comfortable 3.5-game lead atop the AL West and remain tied with the Red Sox for the most wins in the majors.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"opening-act\"><strong>Opening Act<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>Rays<\/strong> will continue their trend of having a relief pitcher start the game and then hand it over to a more traditional starter. Ryne Stanek will start Thursday\u2019s game against the Astros. On the season, he\u2019s posted a 1.99 ERA, including 2.2 scoreless innings in two outings against the Astros last week.<\/p>\n<p>After <strong>Stanek<\/strong>, <strong>Wilmer<\/strong> <strong>Font<\/strong> appears to be next in line to pitch for the Rays. He\u2019s currently pitching to a 6.46 ERA on the season. He also got roughed up against the <strong>Astros<\/strong> while pitching with the A\u2019s last month, giving up five runs over 2.2 innings. That being said, Font has been excellent since coming to the Rays. He\u2019s been a whole new pitcher, posting a 1.64 ERA over his first 22 innings in Tampa Bay. Of course, the Astros have scored the most runs in baseball this season. Also, Josh Reddick and Alex Bregman have been scorching hot over the past week.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"need-more-mccullers\"><strong>Need More McCullers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>Astros<\/strong> will send <strong>Lance<\/strong> <strong>McCullers<\/strong> <strong>Jr<\/strong>. to the mound on Thursday as a traditional starter. On the season, <strong>McCullers<\/strong> is 8-3 with a 3.82 ERA, as he continues to be a steady mid-rotation starter for Houston. However, it\u2019s been a while since he truly dominated a lineup. He\u2019s allowed at least three runs in four of his last six starts, so he\u2019s far from un-hittable.<\/p>\n<p>McCullers missed the <strong>Rays<\/strong> when the teams met last week, so this will be his first time seeing most of Tampa\u2019s hitters. Rookie Jake Bauers could be a challenge for <strong>McCullers<\/strong>, as he has an OPS of 1.215 over his last five games, hitting four extra-base hits in that span. Catcher <strong>Wilson<\/strong> <strong>Ramos<\/strong> and young shortstop Willy Adames are also swinging hot bats at the moment.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"stick-with-the-champs\"><strong>Stick with the Champs<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>Rays<\/strong> have pitched shutouts in three of their last five games, so it\u2019s tough to go against that. But the Stanek and Font combo may not be able to hold down arguably the best lineup in baseball. McCullers, meanwhile, will at least keep his team in the game and give <strong>Houston\u2019s<\/strong> bats a chance to get the Rays.<strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight: bold\"><a href=\"https:\/\/offshoresportsbooks.com\/review\/mybookie\/\">Take the Houston Astros -158 over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/offshoresportsbooks.com\/review\/mybookie\/\">Bet on Major League Baseball at MyBookie.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Astros are at the Tampa Bay Rays in the first of a four game series on Thursday. ","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3035],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays - The Latest Sports Betting News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays - The Latest Sports Betting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Houston Astros are at the Tampa Bay Rays in the first of a four game series on Thursday.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Latest Sports Betting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-28T14:21:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-17T13:09:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/Astros.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Knuppel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@offshorebookies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@offshorebookies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Knuppel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ryan Knuppel\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7a9dbad5ae3c8a6c42f9f74db3687818\"},\"headline\":\"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-28T14:21:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-17T13:09:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/\"},\"wordCount\":557,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Archive\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/\",\"name\":\"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays - The Latest Sports Betting News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-28T14:21:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-17T13:09:06+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"The Latest Sports Betting News\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"OffshoreSportsbooks.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/logo-offshore-sportsbooks.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/logo-offshore-sportsbooks.png\",\"width\":197,\"height\":81,\"caption\":\"OffshoreSportsbooks.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/offshoresportsbooks-com\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/offshorebookies\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7a9dbad5ae3c8a6c42f9f74db3687818\",\"name\":\"Ryan Knuppel\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7c402ec34f211b9db0daf5613ddd154?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7c402ec34f211b9db0daf5613ddd154?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ryan Knuppel\"},\"description\":\"Ryan has been a writer in the sports betting industry for over 15 years. He has written and published nearly 2,000 articles in this space and follows every move surrounding sports. His favorite sports to bet on and write about are NFL, College Football, NBA, College Basketball and MLB.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/author\/knup\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays - The Latest Sports Betting News","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays - The Latest Sports Betting News","og_description":"The Houston Astros are at the Tampa Bay Rays in the first of a four game series on Thursday.","og_url":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/","og_site_name":"The Latest Sports Betting News","article_published_time":"2018-06-28T14:21:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-17T13:09:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":650,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/www.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/Astros.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ryan Knuppel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@offshorebookies","twitter_site":"@offshorebookies","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ryan Knuppel","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/"},"author":{"name":"Ryan Knuppel","@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7a9dbad5ae3c8a6c42f9f74db3687818"},"headline":"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays","datePublished":"2018-06-28T14:21:32+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-17T13:09:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/"},"wordCount":557,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Archive"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/","url":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/","name":"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays - The Latest Sports Betting News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-06-28T14:21:32+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-17T13:09:06+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/american-league-baseball-betting-preview-houston-astros-at-tampa-bay-rays\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"American League Baseball Betting Preview: Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/","name":"The Latest Sports Betting News","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#organization","name":"OffshoreSportsbooks.com","url":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/logo-offshore-sportsbooks.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/logo-offshore-sportsbooks.png","width":197,"height":81,"caption":"OffshoreSportsbooks.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/offshoresportsbooks-com\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/offshorebookies"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7a9dbad5ae3c8a6c42f9f74db3687818","name":"Ryan Knuppel","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7c402ec34f211b9db0daf5613ddd154?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7c402ec34f211b9db0daf5613ddd154?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ryan Knuppel"},"description":"Ryan has been a writer in the sports betting industry for over 15 years. He has written and published nearly 2,000 articles in this space and follows every move surrounding sports. His favorite sports to bet on and write about are NFL, College Football, NBA, College Basketball and MLB.","url":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/author\/knup\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}