Few teams needed a win last night more than the Astros.

Houston came into Monday’s action having lost 12 of its past 14 games, while also having lost nearly as many pitchers — at least it feels that way. Just take a quick glance at this club’s IL. Hunter Brown (shoulder), Tatsuya Imai (fatigue), Cristian Javier (shoulder). Those aren’t losses that are easy to survive, and the Astros have understandably been struggling. However, after a dominating 9-2 victory, Houston can at least take a small breath.

Can the Astros make it two in a row this evening? Or will the Guardians bounce back? Let’s preview this AL clash and make a couple picks on the DraftKings Sportsbook.

Astros vs. Guardians prediction, preview

So, remember that list of injured Astros pitchers I just recited? The consequence of the length of that list, is that you have to start people like Ryan Weiss. That’s not to suggest that Weiss is completely without promise — he was a stud in the KBO in 2024 and 2025 — it’s just that the right-hander’s MLB career has gotten off to a slightly rocky start, and it’s clear that Houston currently prefers the 29-year-old as a reliever. In 14.2 innings of work, Weiss has racked up 18 strikeouts, but he’s also surrendered four home runs, 11 earned runs, and a sixth percentile opponent hard hit rate (54.5%). Weiss isn’t quite built up to be a starter, either. Well, at least not fully, as he threw a season-high 76 pitches in his last outing. That means we’re probably going to have to see a lot of the Astros’ bullpen on Tuesday, which is not a good thing. Houston’s RPs rank 29th in ERA (5.66) and they’ve served up a league-high 1.89 opponent home runs per nine. Yikes.

On the other side of this pitching matchup, we find another starter with little major league experience. That said, Parker Messick already looks like another developmental success story of the Guardians’ pitcher factory. The former second-round pick debuted in 2025, maintaining a 2.72 ERA and a 2.98 FIP across seven starts. If possible, Messick’s looked even better so far in 2026, allowing a mere three earned runs over 25.2 innings. Now, a .200 BABIP isn’t going to sustain. Neither is a 91.4% strand rate. However, when you’re limiting opponents to a 3.3% barrel rate and a 29.5% hard hit rate, you might just get a little “lucky” from time to time. It’s not like the southpaw has been skating by on a soft schedule, either. Messick has faced the Dodgers, the Braves, the Cubs and the Orioles. There isn’t a single cakewalk in there.

That pattern of difficult matchups will continue on Tuesday, as well. For as underwhelming as the Astros’ record is, it’s mostly a byproduct of poor pitching. The offense has actually been one of the best in all of baseball. Houston actually leads all American League teams in wOBA (.350) and wRC+ (124), with Yordan Alvarez leading the charge. He’s been fantastic in left-on-left scenarios, too. In his 36 plate appearances within the split, Alvarez is slashing .448/.528/1.034 with a 315 wRC+. I don’t want to discount Jose Ramirez, who has six homers and 10 stolen bases for the Guardians, yet a healthy Alvarez is easily the best bat in this series. He’s that good.

Astros vs. Guardians pick, best bet

Best Bet: Jose Ramirez 2+ Total Bases (+107)

Weiss has a 6.27 FIP. The Astros’ bullpen has given up the most opponent home runs per nine (1.89). Ramirez probably won’t be in a single bad matchup this evening, and that’s before you factor in that the All-Star is a switch-hitter.

Strong Lean: Ryan Weiss 4+ Strikeouts (+123)

While Weiss’ surface numbers aren’t great, he has managed four strikeouts in two of his three outings where he’s thrown 60+ pitches. He’s struck out 18 in 14.2 innings and I expect he’ll flirt with the 90-pitch plateau on Tuesday.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (TheOBR.com) – Hello, Cleveland Browns fans!

Three days until the NFL Draft. Three. Days. My coffee is strong, my patience for mock drafts is not, and somewhere out there, a draftnik is writing his 47th “why the Browns should definitely pick X at 6” piece. We have arrived at the point in the calendar where every possible permutation has been considered, rejected, re-considered, and published. And yet, here I am, starring articles and talking about them, so who am I to judge?

THE DEFAULT SOLUTION: Over at the Chronicle-Telegram, Scott Petrak profiled Carnell Tate as the king of contested catch – the latest in a long line of Ohio State receivers, and it ties in nicely with a topic we talked about during last night’s Gang of Three.

At this point, there’s no consensus among the draftniks and the mock drafters on who the Browns will take at #6. There have been at various points, but now you’re getting random answers. “Trade down” seems to be the leader, but that may not happen because other teams above the Browns are thinking the same thing, which could screw things up for Andrew Berry and crew. The fallback then seems to be WR Carnell Tate (according to media consensus), but I sense that the massive ecosystem of draft “experts” and wannabe experts has long grown bored with this idea and decided that the Browns shouldn’t “settle” on Tate. So, we’re seeing defensive BPAs and others show up frequently.

But let’s go back to something I’ve said before – mock drafts are often more accurate earlier in the process than later, when the people writing them get bored with the obvious and start throwing curveballs into the mock drafts to keep themselves amused. At the end of the day, if the NFL trading game isn’t cooperating with the Browns, there’s still a very good chance that Tate will be the selection.

So, I advanced this notion last night, and we came back to the original thought that Tate was still a damn good pick at that point, even if one of our crew has been advocating for Makai Lemon for months. As an unabashed Buckeye fan, I’m coming full circle on this idea.

CAMP MONKEN STARTS: Let’s start with the one piece of actual new news: Todd Monken’s voluntary minicamp wrapped with plenty of questions, especially at QB. I’ll spare you my fatigue on that particular topic – we’ve been over the QB situation enough times that my keyboard is starting to file a grievance. Suffice to say: the Browns do not have their quarterback, and the draft is unlikely to fully solve that.

What we do have is a different philosophy on the QB competition, where the facade that all contestants are treated equally is being discarded. This will also give us our first look at the post-Achilles Deshaun Watson, to see if he looks in any way different from the Watson of recent years, who offered little after kickoff in real games. We’ll have Fred Greetham and Pete Smith out at practice today, and expect to hear from them later this afternoon.

Gang of Three, Three Days Away edition is available on YouTube if you missed it. Thursday, we light up the Draft Cave for the full first round. Strap in – we’re almost there.

Have a good one! GO BROWNS!

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I had computer problems this morning, and the stories I saved for the Lift were lost, a tragedy so intense that I’m struggling to write about it. Suffice it to say, somewhere there’s a human being awesome to animals, or a dog returning that favor. One article I do remember was about a sequel to the 1980’s underrated sci-fi movie “The Last Starfighter” being developed as a graphic novel. That movie looked like a Star Wars rip-off when it came out, but turned out to be a surprisingly fun movie. Not sure if I’m the only one who remembers it, but I have fond memories of seeing it in the theater.

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When not remembering when he had L33t video game skills, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.

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