Twins vs Rangers MLB Odds, Pick, Prediction

We all know that aces are traditionally wild on Friday night, and we have a pair of them set to duel in Texas tonight. Joe Ryan will lead his AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins squad into this series against Max Scherzer and the Texas Rangers, who are in the midst of the tightest divisional race in baseball.

However, this is actually a rematch of the meeting between these two teams just five days ago. Ryan and Scherzer were both excellent. However, Ryan departed after just five innings, and the Rangers were able to open the game up in the top of the ninth to get the victory.

Will the Twins vs. Rangers rematch on Friday night produce similar results? Or will the hitters have the jump on the starters, as it's the second time they'll be seeing them in a week?

Let's take a closer look to find out.

From an offensive perspective, the Twins are a very interesting team, as their batted ball metrics put them up there with the elite lineups in the league. However, at the same time, they also have a team, xBA, that sits among the bottom three teams in the majors.

Much of it may have to do with the fact that they lead the majors in team strikeout rate by a considerable margin. The Twins strikeout over 27 percent of the time, which is nearly five percent higher than the league average.

We saw Max Scherzer capitalize on that in his last outing against Minnesota as he struck out 10 Twins over his seventh inning of work. While Minnesota has the familiarity of seeing him again, they have not proven to be able to put the ball in play consistently all season long.

In addition to all this, the Twins are due for some sizable regression against Scherzer. They have racked up 51 at-bats collectively and are hitting just .216 with a 39.6 percent strikeout rate against him.

However, while they have not put many balls in play, their average launch angle and exit velocity suggest they have gotten under the majority of balls against Scherzer, and as a result, their xBA is .188.

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Now, if you're looking for a lineup that is actually elite, look no further than the Texas Rangers. Texas holds the second-highest team batting average in the majors, and a big reason why is that they consistently punish the baseball.

The Rangers rank in the top ten percent of the league in hard-hit rate and average exit velocity. Their ablity will come in handy as their opportunities to score in the matchup may be few and far between with Joe Ryan on the mound.

Ryan has been tremendous this season, and he has excellent numbers against this Texas lineup. Still, the Rangers are due for some positive regression, and past results show Texas has been able to drive the ball when they've put it in play against Ryan.

Texas has racked up just seven hits in 49 at-bats against Ryan, but three of them have gone for extra bases. On the few occasions when Ryan has been blown up this season, the extra-base hits pile up in a hurry, and the Rangers profile as the next team to join the list.

In the first rendition of this matchup, we saw both starters duel, and the Twins bullpen eventually blew up, allowing Texas to take the game. However, the Twins bullpen has a much better track record than the Rangers, and I don't want any part of either here.

If Max is sharp again, he can overpower this free-swinging Twins lineup and keep them silent the first two times through the order. As for Ryan, his past success will be more difficult to replicate as the Rangers have more potential to create traffic or cash in with a big blast.

Back the Rangers to be up halfway through this one.