Houston Astros vs. San Francisco Giants (10:15 pm ET, NBC-11)
San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros will try to edge past each other, on Friday, in Game 1 (10:15 pm ET, NBC-11), at AT&T Park, San Francisco. The Astros have 13-21 home, 6-6 away record whereas the Giants have 18-15 away, 10-8 home record.
For the Giants scoring runs has been a problem all season resulting in dismal series. Against the Astros, the Giants open a three-game set to end a four-game home losses whereas the Astros will try to win their fifth straight. San Francisco lost 1-0 in the series against San Diego this week. The Giants struck out 15 times and batted .183 in the match. With 23 runs, the Astros have put together their best four-game stretch during this win streak, which is quite a feat.
In April, against the San Francisco Giants, Matt Lindstrom never got a chance to save a game but he may not be available for Friday’s match, which is unfortunate for the Astros. In the majors, no team has scored fewer runs than Houston’s 104. Lance Berkman over the last four games, he has two homers, five runs and has raised his average from .175 to .239. He was out due to left knee surgery and his presence will definitely help Houston.
“I was hitting .190 coming in (to the series with St. Louis) so I expected at some point I was going to get some hits,” said Berkman, a career .298 hitter.
Edgar Renteria went 8 for 11 in last month’s series. He is injured because of a groin strain. The problem with the Giants is that the hitters are going through a lean patch, bad news for Giants. Pablo Sandoval is 5 for 48 over his last 11 and Juan Uribe, RBI leader, in his last eight games is 4 for 26.
Against the Astros, Todd Wellemeyer (1-3, 5.97), who is 0-2 with a 2.70 ERA in four career starts will be used by Giants to counter the Astros and make for some good baseball betting action.
