Royals have a great starter in the making here, but Alvarez is locked in and he saw Ragans a bit when he was a Ranger and hits him hard. I smell an extra base hit here. This is priced pretty high for a slugger of this caliber, based on Ragans great start and how he finished last year. But Houston starting to hit and I wouldn't be surprised if Yordan goes yard in this one.

Cristian Javier has yet to allow a run this year, and while he issued five walks in his last outing, he paired it with giving up just one hit to keep Toronto off the board. While both those starts were at home and he was much worse on the road last year, he still averaged better than five innings per start away from Houston last year. Most crucially, the Astros absolutely need length on Tuesday after getting just one out from their starter last night. I think it's more likely Javier pitches six innings than five today despite these odds.

The Astros have won two straight after a sluggish 2-7 start, but this is a rough spot for them. They played last night and were forced to make it a bullpen game after Framber Valdez was scratched and fill-in Blair Henley recorded just one out. The Royals had yesterday off and now send their ace to the mound in Cole Ragans, who allowed just one hit in 6.1 scoreless innings in Baltimore in his last start. Houston's bats have contributed more than three runs just three times in the last 10 games. I'd make the Royals slight favorites here.

The Royals have quietly snuck into the Top 10 in every meaningful hitting metric, while striking out at the fifth-lowest rate against RHP. The Stros were well-known for their prowess against lefties last season, but hadn't seen the same success until hanging 6 runs on Andrew Heaney tonight. Still, they rank as a below-average team vs LHP this season. As for pitching, there's not enough space here to explain how much I like KC's Cole Ragan (he was my favorite pre-season Cy Young pick), and he just threw 6.1 scoreless innings with 7 K vs. Baltimore. Cristian Javier is solid on the other side, but Royals are underrated in this spot and coming off a rest day.

The Astros are completing a rivalry series tonight at Texas and their rotation is a bit jumbled with Framber Valdez scratched Monday. Hopefully their bullpen is wrecked by the Rangers ahead of this one Tuesday. Ace lefty Cole Ragans starts for Kansas City and he shut out a loaded Orioles lineup in Baltimore over 6.1 innings last time out.