Texas Rangers vs. Miami Marlins Best Bet: How Will Jordan Montgomery Fare in Texas?
Jordan Montgomery was acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals at the deadline as the Texas Rangers look to bolster their starting rotation. How will he fare in his first start in a Rangers uniform? Let’s break it down.
Joey Ruiz - August 4, 2023, 4:48 PM EDT
5 minTexas Rangers vs. Miami Marlins Best Bet: How Will Jordan Montgomery Fare in Texas?
The Texas Rangers are having a solid season and were going to be buyers at the deadline and did a great job of bolstering their starting rotation with the addition of Max Scherzer and tonight’s starter, Jordan Montgomery.
Rangers vs. Marlins Date, Time, Where to Watch
- Date: August 4, 2023
- Time: 8:05 pm ET
- Where to Watch: MLB.TV
Texas Rangers vs. Miami Marlins Prediction
Montgomery was having a solid season with the Cardinals, as he has a very respectable 3.42 ERA and really adds some depth to the Rangers rotation. You can pretty much pencil Montgomery in for at least 5-6 innings per start and maybe more, as he is not considered a strikeout pitcher, so his pitch count doesn’t typically get too high early in games. Montgomery is more of a finesse pitcher who induces soft contact and actually has reverse splits this season as he is better against righties (.242 avg against) compared to lefties (.292 avg against).
The Miami Marlins are anchored by a solid 1-2 punch at the top of their lineup with Luis Arraez and Jorge Soler, but other than these two, the Marlins have lacked consistent offensive production in the latter half of their lineup. On the other side, the Rangers are having a historic offensive season led by their three-headed monster of Corey Seager, Adolis Garcia, and Marcus Semien. Josh Jung and Nathaniel Lowe also provide very solid at-bats and power to an already extremely deep lineup.
They will face Jesus Luzardo tonight, who is having a great season in his own right, but he has not been the same pitcher on the road. Luzardo owns a 4.63 ERA on the road compared to a 2.64 ERA at home, so he has had a fairly large drop-off in performance away from home this season. He has allowed basically the same amount of earned runs at home and on the road this season but with 32 fewer innings pitched on the road and has an opponent batting average of .288 in road starts compared to .206 at home. These discrepancies in Luzardo’s home versus road starts, coupled with how potent this Rangers offense can be, are not a good recipe for success for Luzardo tonight.
The Rangers are also playing excellent baseball lately, as they are coming off a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox, where they averaged six runs per game. The Marlins, on the other hand, have struggled to score runs lately, especially early in the game as they scored just four total runs in the first five innings combined in their last series against the Philadelphia Phillies, where they dropped three of four and nearly got swept.
I think Texas will be able to push across 3-4 runs off Luzardo, and I see Montgomery turning in a strong six IP 1-2 ER-type performance in his debut. With that being said, I am rolling with Texas F5 ML at -122 and Texas Full Game ML at -130 for 1.5u each to total a 3U position on the Rangers tonight for my most confident MLB plays of the day.
Texas Rangers vs. Miami Marlins Best Bet
- 1.5U Texas F5 ML -122 is currently the best odds. Click here to see which sportsbook has the best odds for this pick
- 1.5U Texas Full Game ML -130 is currently the best odds. Click here to see which sportsbook has the best odds for this pick
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