Baltimore Orioles at Texas Rangers Betting Preview/Prop Picks
01 August 2022
The Baltimore Orioles (51-51) find themselves facing the Texas Rangers (46-55) after losing two straight games. The Orioles were beaten by the Cincinnati Reds two games in a row after poor pitching performances.
Tonight, they’ll need to get it together as they face an American League rival. If they lose again, the Boston Red Sox could pass them up in the AL East.
The Texas Rangers are coming off of a 3-1 series win over the Los Angeles Angels. Morale must be pretty high in Texas after that series. The key tonight for the Rangers is going to be on the mound.
If they can limit the effectiveness of the Orioles at the plate, they should be able to win. Coming in as -162 favorites, let’s see if the Rangers are the best pick in tonight’s game.
Baltimore Orioles: Spenser Watkins takes the mound tonight
As we mentioned above, pitching is going to be vital in this game. The Orioles will send out Spenser Watkins, who is 3-1 with a 4.03 ERA. Although Watkins has a great record, his ERA being over 4.00 is slightly concerning.
Over 58 innings, Watkins has thrown 35 strikeouts and allowed 62 hits. He’s also given up six home runs in this amount of time.
The Orioles have also struggled at the plate, which was evident in the Reds series. As a team, Baltimore is batting .234 this season, ranking 24th overall. They also rank 25th in on-base percentage at .301 and 18th in slugging percentage at .385.
As underdogs, the Orioles have a record of 40-47 this season. With poor batting and pitching, it’s looking like another loss.
Texas Rangers: Getting an early lead should help the Rangers
If the Rangers can start scoring early, they should be able to win this game. In yesterday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels, the Rangers scored three runs in the ninth inning. We’d rather them get started a bit sooner in this game.
They have a slight edge over the Orioles in terms of batting with a .239 average. They do, however, rank 13th overall in slugging percentage (.399).
On the mound for the Rangers tonight is Jon Gray, who is 7-5 this season. With an ERA of 3.62, the pitching advantage goes to the Rangers. After seeing how they played against the Angels, the pick here becomes clearer.
As a favorite, the Rangers have a record of 16-18 and can get closer to .500 with a win. Between these two, the best pick is looking like the Rangers.
Baltimore Orioles at Texas Rangers Betting Pick
On the surface, these two teams seem rather alike. Both of them have mediocre records and aren’t the best at the plate this season. However, when you dive deeper into it, you can see the Rangers lead in a few key categories.
Having the better pitcher on the mound definitely helps the Rangers take the edge here. They also have a better batting group, so we’ll go with the Rangers at -162. We’re also going to add the over on this bet since the total has gone over in four of their last six meetings.
DunkelIndex Free Pick: Texas Rangers -162, OVER
Prop Picks
Texas (+110) OVER 4.5 Runs
Texas is averaging 4.55 runs per 9 innings on offense, which ranks No. 10 in the league. Baltimore is allowing 4.24 runs per 9 innings on defense, which ranks No. 11 in the league. That average increases to 4.66 runs per 9 innings on the road. Scores have gone OVER in four of Baltimore’s last six road games.
With Dunkel predicting a Texas home victory by the score of 6-4, take the Rangers (+110) to finish OVER their Vegas team total of 4.5 runs against the Orioles.
Texas (-125) Most Hits
Texas is averaging 8.16 hits per 9 innings on offense, which ranks No. 16 in the league. Baltimore is allowing 8.69 hits per 9 innings on defense, which ranks No. 26 in the league. That average remains relatively steady at 8.68 hits per 9 innings on the road.
With Dunkel predicting a Rangers home win while going OVER their Vegas run total, take Texas (-125) to finish with more hits than Baltimore.
Marcus Semien (-135) OVER 0.5 Runs Scored
Semien has scored 56 runs in 100 games played this season, which ranks No. 2 on the Rangers. The second baseman has scored 3 runs in 13 at-bats with an OPS of 1.044 versus Baltimore.
With Dunkel predicting the final score going OVER the Vegas total, take Semien (-135) to finish OVER 0.5 runs scored versus the Orioles.
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