Montas expected to start for Athletics at Astros

Oakland Athletics (2-7) vs. Houston Astros (6-2)

Houston; Saturday, 4:05 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Athletics: TBD Astros: Jose Urquidy (0-0, 4.15 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 5 strikeouts)

LINE: Astros favored by 1 1/2 runs; over/under is 9 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The Oakland Athletics visit the Houston Astros on Saturday.

The Astros went 19-21 in division play in 2020. Houston pitchers had a WHIP of 1.31 last year while striking out 8.8 hitters per game.

The Athletics went 26-14 in division games in 2020. Oakland hit .225 as a team and averaged 2.9 extra base hits per game last season.

The teams meet for the sixth time this year. Houston leads the season series 5-1.

INJURIES: Astros: Justin Verlander: (elbow), Framber Valdez: (finger), Andre Scrubb: (shoulder), Austin Pruitt: (elbow), Enoli Paredes: (right side), Josh James: (hip), Pedro Baez: (illness).

Athletics: Burch Smith: (groin), Trevor Rosenthal: (chest), A.J. Puk: (left biceps), Reymin Guduan: (thumb), Mike Fiers: (right hip), Chad Pinder: (knee).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.