Free Pick | Thursday | MLB | Aug. 3

Football kicks off tonight with the Hall of Fame game – check out Bobby Dalton’s opening selection!

Don’t miss Green Sheet Issue #3 released this week.

Hot baseball runs continue from Nelly’s (18-10 since All-Star break) and Bobby Dalton (45-26 L53 days)

#963 Houston Astros (Javier) -105 over New York Yankees (Schmidt) 6:15 PM CT
New York picked up a critical win Wednesday night behind Gerrit Cole, winning 7-2 after falling behind 2-0 to avoid a home sweep. New York is still just 2-4 in the past six games and draws another difficult pairing this weekend with four games hosting Houston starting Thursday. The Astros are 7-3 in the past 10 games and right on the heels of Texas in the NL West race, going 17-9 since early July. A complete game no-hitter on Tuesday leaves the bullpen in great shape for Houston while the Yankees have only had one starting effort past four innings in the past four days to negate the one clear edge New York has in comparing these teams. Even with a healthy lead last night the Yankees used Tommy Kahnle and Clay Holmes last night as neither had pitched in several days on the losing streak. Many expected New York to try to replace Clarke Schmidt in the rotation at the trade deadline as Schmidt has average numbers and has allowed three or more runs in four of his last six starts, while not pitching any better at home. Cristian Javier has an elevated ERA this season but from a pure stuff standpoint there aren’t many better pitchers in the American League. His strikeouts have declined, and his strand rate has also declined this season to inflate his numbers, but Houston is 14-6 in his starts and since a rough patch a month ago he has been sharp in his last three starts. This is the first meeting of the season since Houston swept the Yankees in the ALCS last season, but these teams are 55 runs apart in scoring this season and the upside on the mound is much higher for Houston Thursday.