Louis Cangiano 
Updated 12:05 pm EST
Micheal Brantley should see some solid pitches today in the clean up spot with Alvarez hitting behind him AND Bregman is leading off, lock in these Houston bats as they face Trent Thornton. I have a unique strategy today which is playing the one, two and four batters for Houston, avoiding Alvarez. He will be very chalky today and a bad game is imminent. If anything, I can see them pitching around him, taking their chances with Josh Reddick. The Houston Astros are favored by -220 with a 9 under/over.
Updated 11:55 pm EST
The Arizona Diamondbacks face the red-hot Anibal Sanchez. Over his last three starts, Sanchez owns a 1.04 ERA and has struck out 15 batters allowing a mere .153 BA to all opposing batters over this span. Sanchez is a completely viable play tonight despite Arizona’s impressive play on this road trip scoring 45 runs over the last seven. The Diamondbacks do struggle against right-handed pitching as they’re only batting .243 against righties this season, compared to a .295 BA vs. opposing left-handed pitching. Arizona only has a .310 OBP and a .429 SLG to opposing righties. Sanchez is my pitching play today on both sites. Salaries are extremely reasonable.
Updated 11:43 am EST
The Atlanta Braves lead the league in runs over the past week with 55. They set to face Cole Irvin, a left-handed rookie who is allowing lefties to hit for average and righties to hit for power. The Braves lineup looks very juicy. Donaldson is my dong call of the day as his bat is heating up. Donaldson has hit seven of his eleven home runs at home and Atlanta owns the leagues highest BA on the slate over the last week. Donaldson is in the four hole and should have ample opportunity for some RBI. Atlanta is favored by -160 with a 10.5 under/over.
The Texas Rangers have struck out 84 times in the past seven days, a league high. Today, they face Sonny Gray who has been known to get some strike outs on his slider. Gray has been putting up consistently modest numbers and has yet to face Texas so far this season. Yes, the home run ball worries me a bit but this is the perfect hedge game. Gray did struggle in his last outing allowing two homers and six earned runs. Invest in exposure to Texas’ pitcher as well. I truly believe the 9.5 under/over is way too high! I will be betting the under for this match up today. Stay tuned for more information as the lineups start coming in.
