Houston Astros vs Minnesota Twins Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 05/20/26

Neither the Houston Astros nor the Minnesota Twins is having a great start to the 2026 season, and they’ve split the first two games of this series, with the rubber match going on Wednesday. The Twins won the first game 6-3 on Monday, before the Astros bounced back with a tight 2-1 victory on Tuesday. Houston will send Mike Burrows to the mound to attempt to win the series, while Minnesota counters with ace Joe Ryan.

Burrows is coming off his worst start of the season, allowing seven earned runs over 5.2 innings. One area where Burrows has been struggling this season has been giving up the long ball, and the Twins are an above-average power team. It is a bit of a poor matchup for the righty, but his 5.72 ERA is a bit overblown given a 3.95 xERA. The key for him is to avoid a blowup, which happened a couple of times this season.

The Twins got a bit of a scare in Ryan’s first start of May when he left after two batters with an apparent right arm injury. Nevertheless, he returned six days later to make his start and allowed just two hits and one earned run over six innings. His last start against the Milwaukee Brewers was much of the same, allowing four hits and one earned run over six.

The trust factor with Ryan is much higher, as two of the majors’ worst bullpens will take over when these two pitchers leave the game. The Twins should have a cushion thanks to the starting pitcher matchup, and that will bring them over the finish line.

Astros vs Twins prediction: Twins ML (-150) available at time of publishing. Playable to that number.