Two of the best teams in MLB face off on Friday when the Tampa Bay Rays travel to Houston to battle the Astros.

This should be a stellar pitching matchup on paper with Shane McClanahan (11-1, 2.89 ERA) dealing for Tampa Bay and Cristian Javier (7-2, 4.32 ERA) getting the ball for Houston. 

McClanahan has been dominant most of the season but he’s cooled off a bit of late.

In his last four starts, McClanahan allowed 13 runs over 16 ²/₃ innings with the Rays dropping three of those games.

The lefty gave up four runs or more twice in those four outings.

To put that into perspective, McClanahan gave up four runs or more just once in his prior 15 starts. 

Similar to McClanahan, Javier started the year out strong but has been roughed up recently.

Javier allowed four runs just once in his first 12 starts.

However, in his last seven outings, Javier has given up at least four runs on four different occasions. 

With neither pitcher in top form right now, we could be looking at a higher-scoring game.

The over is 4-1-1 in McClanahan’s last six games and 11-2 in Javier’s last 13 starts.

Toss in that the Astros hit over .260 against left-handed pitching and this looks like another game that goes over the total. 

Over 8.5 runs (-105, Caesars Sportsbook)