Keagan Smith gives you a preview, prediction and pick for today’s game between the Los Angeles Angels and Houston Astros on Friday’s MLB slate.
The MLB is back! There’s just something about the first few weeks of baseball season that seem magical — the emerald-green grass, the chatter from the bleachers before the crack of a bat and the way the crowd builds into a collective cheer or sigh depending on the trajectory of that stitched and leather-bound sphere. It’s so beautiful that even the most offense-first fans can enjoy a defensive slugfest with little scoring to go around.
That’s what we got on Opening Day when the Houston Astros hosted the Los Angeles Angels at Daikin Park, at least before the visitors opened things up in the late stages to take a 3-0 win. Now, they run it back again at 8:15 p.m. ET on Friday evening.
Here’s a betting prediction and pick for this Angels vs. Astros matchup, courtesy of MLB odds and lines on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Angels vs. Astros prediction, preview
Last season, both of these AL West foes missed out on the playoffs for various reasons. For the Angels, it was a pretty typical year — flashes of what could be, though those were largely interspersed between some very rough patches en route to a 72-90 campaign. They made some moves over the offseason to shake things up, bolstering the stable of pitchers with names like Kirby Yates, Drew Pomeranz, and Jordan Romano, also adding infielders Yoan Moncada and Josh Lowe to the mix. Mike Trout showed surprising health last season with 130 games under his belt, and a bump to his numbers after a statistical down year isn’t out of the question. He certainly looked healthy with a homer and a stolen base to open the new campaign yesterday. Paired with Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel, there’s an avenue for a competitive group here.
For the Astros, 2025 was marred by what fans called a season from hell amidst numerous injuries to key names like Yordan Alvarez, Isaac Paredes, Jake Meyers, Ronel Blanco and Luis Garcia. Coupled with the departures of a pair of stars in the preceding offseason, an 87-75 finish that had them missing the AL West title by just three games was quite the accomplishment in retrospect. While they lost stud pitcher Framber Valdez, the franchise did add a big name in Tatsuya Imai from the Japanese NPB along with an upside arm in Mike Burrows. There wasn’t a ton of action otherwise with a logjam in the infield that sees Jose Altuve, Jeremy Pena, Carlos Correa, and Isaac Paredes all looking for consistent at-bats, but there are clear pathways back to the postseason with this core given better luck on the injury report.
With the stage set, yesterday’s outing kicked things off in the new year for these sides. Hunter Brown delivered 4.2 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts, but the Astros’ offense mustered just three hits on the day as the Angels scored three runs across the final three frames to win it. Granted, Jose Soriano was dealing in that one with just two hits and no runs allowed with seven punchouts across 6.0 innings of work. Houston could see better results tonight against one of its own former players.
For Los Angeles, left-hander Yusei Kikuchi gets the start after logging a 3.99 ERA and 1.42 WHIP last season, striking out 174 batters across 178.1 innings. He excelled in run value on breaking balls but didn’t do well with his fastball, also coming in at just seventh percentile in average exit velo with marks below the 50th percentile in chase, whiff, strikeout and walk percentage.
Houston’s starter tonight is Mike Burrows, the aforementioned former Pittsburgh Pirate whom his new organization seems to truly believe in. His 2025 numbers of a 3.94 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and 97 strikeouts in 96 innings aren’t too shabby for the most part, and he was truly elite with a 97th-percentile grade in offspeed run value thanks to an excellent changeup. His Spring Training marks with just three earned runs allowed, a 1.06 WHIP and 17 strikeouts over 19 innings are an indication of why his new team trusts him so much.
Angels vs. Astros pick, best bet
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Astros are -169 favorites on the Moneyline while the Angels hold +140 odds to win outright. The combined run total sits at 8.5 for this contest.
Best Bet: Mike Burrows under 1.5 earned runs allowed (+105)
Burrows looked incredible during Spring Training and the Stros’ pitching lab has certainly seen its fair share of project-to-production stories over the years. Tonight is the first test of whether this could be another edition in the team’s collection, but I like him to stay hot and hold this Angels lineup in check while he’s out there.
Strong Lean: HOU Astros -1.5 (+117)
First run line of the season, eh? After yesterday’s poor performance at the plate, I fully expect the Astros to bounce back with a much better outing. There’s too much talent in the lineup between Altuve, Paredes, Alvarez, Correa, etc. for them to not, and the team was better against southpaws last season as well, which is a good sign against Kikuchi. In particular, Alvarez could mash given his career splits and penchant for left-on-left dominance at the dish.