Sean Murphy

My selection is on the 'over' between Kansas City and Houston at 8:10 pm et on Friday.

Royals starter Cole Ragans has had a terrific season, at least since joining Kansas City early in the campaign. I do think he'll be in tough on Friday, however, as he faces the Astros for the second time in less than a week, noting that a number of Houston hitters have wore him out, including Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez and Jeremy Pena (a combined 7-for-19 with five walks). As a team, the Astros are averaging an impressive 6.1 runs per game against left-handed starting pitching this season. With that being, said Houston hasn't exactly been running away from the competition lately. It has lost six of its last nine games including two of three against these same Royals last weekend in Kansas City. Framber Valdez will get the start for the Astros on Friday. He'll be starting on short rest (four days) and that's worth noting as he has posted a 5.81 ERA and 1.58 WHIP in that situation this season (five starts, 27 2/3 innings), compared to a 2.83 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in 23 starts on full rest. Behind Valdez is an Astros bullpen that has struggled to the tune of a 4.63 ERA and 1.46 WHIP over the last seven games. Of course, the Royals bullpen has had a tough time all season, recording a collective 5.19 ERA and 1.47 WHIP with 24 saves converted and 23 blown. Noting that Kansas City road games have totalled an average of 8.8 runs while Houston home games have reached 9.2 runs per game on average, we'll confidently back the 'over' on Friday. Take the over (8*).

Big Ten Total of the Month. My selection is on the 'under' between Wisconsin and Purdue at 7 pm et on Friday.

Wisconsin entered this season with a new look on offense, aiming to ratchet up the pace and sling the football around the field a lot more than we're accustomed to seeing. So far, it's been a mixed bag. The Badgers opened the season with a dominant performance against Buffalo, rolling to a 38-17 victory. From there they travelled to face Washington State and dropped a 31-22 decision. Last week they forced six turnovers in a 35-14 home win over Georgia Southern. Wisconsin is in for a tough test on Friday as it faces a Purdue squad that will be in a foul mood following a 35-20 home loss to Syracuse last Saturday. Don't sleep on the Boilermakers defense. They were hung out to dry by the offense last week as Purdue turned the football over four times in that setback against the Orange. Keep in mind, the Boilers are just one game removed from holding Virginia Tech to 17 points on fewer than 300 total yards in Blacksburg. I do think we see a rather conservative offensive gameplan from Purdue here after last week's turnover-happy performance. The Boilers know they can ill afford to give a good Wisconsin offense any short fields to work with on Friday. For the most part, Purdue hasn't shown much big play potential on offense in the early going this season. I would anticipate plenty of dinking and dunking down the field on Friday, noting that they did control the time of possession in last year's matchup with the Badgers, holding onto the football for 32+ minutes, albeit in a 35-24 defeat. Enough about Purdue, Wisconsin couldn't have been pleased with its defensive performance against Georgia Southern last week, allowing the Eagles to complete 33-of-52 passes for 383 yards. Were it not for all of the GSU turnovers, the end result might have been much different. In the Badgers toughest test so far this season they did hold an ascending Washington State offense to 'only' 31 points in enemy territory. In that contest, there was a stretch where the Badgers didn't allow an offensive touchdown for just shy of 39 minutes from early in the second quarter until the fourth quarter. All told, Wisconsin has given up seven offensive touchdowns in 12 quarters of action this season. Offensively, the Badgers would like to shift to a more pass-happy attack but so far they've topped out at 278 passing yards through three games. The Badgers ground attack is as good as any in the nation but I do think the Boilers can limit the big home run plays here. I'm very high on Purdue's defense in the second and third level in particular. Take the under (10*).