Rangers-Giants prediction: Picks, odds on Friday, August 11

The Texas Rangers (68-47) and San Francisco Giants (62-53) will begin a three-game weekend interleague series tonight. First pitch is scheduled for 10:15 p.m. ET at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Jon Gray (7-5, 3.72 ERA) will step on the mound for the Rangers and will go up against lefty opener Scott Alexander (6-2, 4.01 ERA) for the Giants.

Texas has won eight out of its last nine contests and has maintained its position at the top of the AL West standings. The team just took two out of three off the Athletics earlier in the week, but did fall in a 2-0 shutout on Wednesday. Meanwhile, San Francisco has struggled over the past week with four losses in its last five contests. The team just dropped two out of three to the also-slumping Angels in Anaheim.

This one is nearly a pick ‘em on the moneyline over at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the Rangers at -115 and the Giants at -105. The run total is set at 8.5.

Rangers-Giants picks: Friday, August 11

Injury report

Rangers

Out: SP Nathan Eovaldi (elbow), C Jonah Heim (wrist), DH Brad Miller (hamstring), 3B Josh Jung (thumb)

Giants

Day-To-Day: RP Keaton Winn (elbow), RP Darien Nunez (elbow), SS Marco Luciano hamstring)
Out: OF Mitch Haniger (forearm), SP Antony DeSclafani (elbow), OF Mike Yastrzemski (hamstring), OF Luis Gonzalez (back), RP John Brebbia (hand), OF AJ Pollock (oblique)

Starting pitchers

Gray was able to notch his eighth win of the season last Saturday against the Marlins, his first victory in a month. It was what normally would have been an inauspicious start, yielding three earned runs and five runs total in 5.1 innings. However, the Rangers bats heating up in the middle innings allowed for him to pick up the W. His road splits have been better than his home splits this season, posting a 4-2 record with a 3.14 ERA away from Globe Life Field.

Alexander is coming out of the bullpen to make his sixth start of the season for the Giants and he’s hoping that things go better than Wednesday’s outing against the Angels. The lefty yielded two singles and a double in the bottom of the first before Gabe Kapler wasted no time to yank him for fellow reliever Jakob Junis. We’ll see if he can clock two innings against this Rangers lineup tonight.

Over/Under pick

It’s difficult to prognosticate the total for this one with the Giants once again relying on a patchwork of bullpen arms to carry them through the evening. The Rangers have a chance to take advantage of this at the plate and they should do their part in carrying the over in this one.

Pick: Over 8.5

Moneyline pick

And with a good offensive outing, I trust the Rangers to get the job done and open up this series with a victory this evening. The Giants are batting just .200 as a team over the past week and it’s hard to imagine them keeping pace with Texas tonight.