Houston Astros vs Texas Rangers Prediction: A low scoring matchup again

Monday's Major League Baseball postseason action at Minute Maid Park features a matchup between the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. The American League Championship Series will consist of a best-of-seven format, and this will be Game 2 of the series. The Rangers were able to get their season started off on the right foot by cruising to a victory in the opening game of the ALCS on Sunday.

In their Division Series matchup against the Minnesota Twins, the Houston Astros prevailed with relative ease, sweeping the series in just four games to claim the championship. Michael Brantley and Jose Abreu each hit a home run for Houston during the game that decided the winner by a score of 3-2 on Wednesday. Abreu drove in two runs with his home shot. The Houston Astros were unable to produce any runs at the bat on Sunday, which allowed Justin Verlander's solid start (6.2 innings; two earned runs) to go to waste. There were two walks taken for Houston, but no batter recorded more than one hit. On Monday, the Houston Astros will send Framber Valdez out to the field as their opening pitcher. This year, Valdez made 31 starts and finished the regular season with a record of 12-11 and a 3.45 earned run average (ERA). In the one start that Valdez has had so far in the postseason, he has a record of 0-1 with a 10.38 earned run average over 4.1 innings pitched.

The Texas Rangers were dominant throughout the first two series of the postseason, winning both of them. The Texas Rangers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in both of their Wild Card games, winning by scores of 4-0 and 7-1, and then went on to win the Division Series against the Baltimore Orioles by scores of 3-2, 11-8, and 7-1. The Texas Rangers were victorious in Game 1 of the ALCS against Houston on Sunday, collecting six hits as a team to earn a 2-0 victory. Leody Taveras, who collected two hits, hit a home run, and Jonah Helm contributed the other run batted in. Nathan Eovaldi will take the mound for the Texas Rangers in Game 2 of the series, which will take place on Monday. This year, Eovaldi made 25 starts and managed to finish the regular season with a record of 12-5 and a 3.63 earned run average (ERA). Eovaldi has pitched 13.2 innings and has a winning record of 2-0 in the postseason with an impressive earned run average of 1.32.

In this matchup, I'm going to stick with the Texas Rangers. Eovaldi is off to a strong start in the postseason, as seen by the fact that he has already made two of them, and he is expected to continue that trend here. In his most recent start, which took place on Wednesday against the Baltimore Orioles, Eovaldi allowed only one run over seven innings while striking out seven batters, walking none, and allowing five hits. Regarding Valdez, he was the losing pitcher for the Houston Astros in the series against the Minnesota Twins. He went 4.1 innings, allowed five earned runs, seven hits, and walked three batters. However, I think Valdez has made a comeback and is looking much better in this one. We should have another game that has a relatively low score, and Texas Rangers should have no problems winning in that case.