The Astros feast on left-handed pitching. Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez posted a 5.95 ERA in Fenway Park during the regular season. The Astros saw Rodriguez twice this season and tuned him up for 12 earned runs in 9 1/3 innings. This is the offense that led the AL in runs, hits, average and on-base percentage and they don't hit any worse on the road. It feels like an onslaught is coming. We'll stick with the moneyline, though, as the Red Sox are pretty powerful in their own right. Astros starter Jose Urquidy threw well against the Red Sox in late May, but he can be gotten to.

The runline has been pretty good to us of late in these playoffs so let's stick with it as I certainly think Houston can stay within a run if not win outright tonight behind Jose Urquidy (8-3, 3.62). His turn was skipped in the ALDS when Game 4 vs. the White Sox was postponed. Urquidy was 6-0 with a 2.89 ERA this year at night and allowed one run over six at home vs. Boston at the end of May. Houston generally hammers lefties and faces Sox southpaw Eduardo Rodriguez. He was significantly worse at home in the regular season than away. Rodriguez is 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA this postseason.

Game 2 was supposed to be the one game where we didn’t get a slugfest with Nathan Eovaldi starting. That didn’t work out as there were still 14 runs scored in the game. I am seeing both team totals offered at 4.5 right now but the total is at 9. Both these teams are capable of hitting the game total on their own and I think the Astros will be more likely to hit their over team total of 4.5 than the Red Sox, but I am going to take the overall Over 9 just to be safe. I think even if one of these teams doesn’t hit well, they should still score 3 or 4 runs while the winning team should score around 6 or 7 runs at least. Take the over.

Jose Urquidy will finally get to make his 2021 postseason debut and he has been nails in the playoffs in his career. He has a 2.81 ERA in 25.2 IP in the playoffs. He faced the Red Sox once this season and allowed just 1 ER in 6 IP. The Astros went down 9-0 after the second inning in Game 2 so they didn’t have much of a chance in that game. Urquidy should be able to give them solid innings and they should face the lefty Eduardo Rodriguez. He was hit hard by Houston both times they faced him this season allowing 6 ER in 4.1 IP in both games. This will be just Rodriguez 4th career postseason start and the Astros are one of the best lefty-hitting teams in the league. Take the Astros.