Just last weekend, the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers played a four-game series up north and the Twins took three of those.
Now, they’ll reconvene in Texas for three more with the 69-65 Twins in first in the AL Central. The Rangers are now third in the AL West at 75-58.
For Game 1, the Twins will send Joe Ryan to the mound against Max Scherzer. Ryan is 9-8 with a 4.33 ERA while Scherzer is 12-5 with a 3.71 ERA.
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Now, let's get into the odds for the Twins and Rangers down south as both are in battles to for their divison titles.
Twins vs. Rangers odds, run line and total
Twins vs. Rangers prediction and pick
These two pitchers matched up last week and it was the only game that Texas took in that series. Ryan went five innings and only gave up one run, but the bullpen for Minnesota fell apart in a 6-2 loss.
Scherzer actually allowed both runs, but that was over seven innings. It was a great pitching matchup until Griffin Jax took the mound, he was the Minnesota reliever who allowed four runs in the ninth.
Joe Ryan is much better against left-handed hitters than righties, so this is actually a solid matchup for him. Sure, Texas has Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia, but they also rely heavily on Nathaniel Lowe and Corey Seager.
Seager had 10 home runs in August and led the team with a .337 average. This season, Ryan has allowed an .818 OPS to righties and a .618 OPS to lefties.
I have faith in Ryan who still has a xERA of 3.33 along with an 86th percentile strikeout rate and 92nd percentile walk rate. Both of these teams went 15-12 in August and they scored nearly and identical amount of runs.
For Texas, 12th in runs scored for a month is a considerable drop off, so with two strong starters, I’ll take the under.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change