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Thanks to the lockout, the Yankees and Astros will meet on Thursday for the rare one-game regular-season series.

The Astros just got through feasting on the Mets, sweeping that two-game series and winning four straight. In totality, Houston is 6-1 against New York teams in the month of June.

Both of these teams have proven that they are legitimate legit World Series contenders. The two star-studded teams are at the top of the American League odds boards to win the World Series.

Odds provided by BetMGM

Spread: NYY -1.5 (+135) vs. HOU +1.5 (-160)

Moneyline: NYY (-125) vs. HOU (+105)

Total: Over 7.5 (-115) | Under 7.5 (-105)

Luis Severino (4-2, 3.38) vs. Luis Garcia (5-5, 3.68)

As stated above, these two teams are incredibly talented and will be in contention, if not win, the American League pennant.

The Yankees are the favorite in tonight’s game and they should be. Luis Severino profiles as the significantly better pitcher in terms of peripheral stats and more traditional ones. In particular, Severino’s strikeout rate is on par with his pre-injury numbers and his 2.67 FIP is an indicator that his season to date is not a fluke.

On the other side, fourth starter Luis Garcia has his work cut out for him against the Bronx Bombers. Aaron Judge has been a menace to opposing pitchers with his 29 homers and is the clear AL MVP favorite at this point. Somehow under the radar is Giancarlo Stanton, who actually has better peripheral stats than Judge.

In particular, his exit velocity is the best in baseball and slightly higher than Judge’s (96.2 MPH vs. 95.8 MPH), are each of which are in the top 1% in the MLB. If Stanton were to change his launch angle, which is currently just 9.6 degrees (15 degrees is average per Jeff Zimmerman of Fangraphs), Stanton could also be in the MVP conversation.

Stanton only has two at-bats against Garcia in his career but he went yard in one of those attempts. At +380 on FanDuel, he is a fine bet to send into the bleachers tonight.

Despite Clay Holmes likely being unavailable tonight after pitching in back-to-back games to close the A’s series, the Yankees’ starting pitching edge should be enough to carry them to victory. Expect Michael King to be called on if a save opportunity presents itself.

Back the Yankees with confidence tonight against the spread at plus-money. This would be worth a bet down to +125.