Even with injuries, we've seen the Astros motor on and pick up victories as they continue to turn the AL West into a runaway. Meanwhile, the Angels have completely fallen apart over the last couple of months as they continue to fade out of the playoff picture. Houston won the opening game of the series Tuesday night as they blew a four-run lead only to rally for a 6-5 win. In Wednesday's game, we saw Cristian Javier and Shohei Ohtani take the mound in what was likely to be a pitchers' duel. In this one, the pitching matchup goes toward the Astros. Framber Valdez is 8-4 with a 2.64 ERA, a 1.11 WHIP, 40 walks and 96 strikeouts while allowing only six homers in 109 innings this season. The Astros continue to embrace the next man up theory and that is important with Yordan Alvarez missing. The Angels send Reid Detmers to the hill here. He was solid when he threw a no-hitter against the Rays back on May 10 but things have soured since then. Detmers is 0-2 with a 4.64 ERA, a 5.84 FIP ERA, a 1.303 WHIP, 14 walks and 31 strrikeouts over 33 innings in seven starts since. The Angels have dropped all seven of those contests, getting outscored 41-24 in those games. Eleven runs came in one of those outings. Seeing how Houston entered Wednesday winners of eight of the 11 meetings this season and their edge on the mound, you have to give the advantage to the Astros here.