Pittsburgh Pirates vs Texas Rangers Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 04/23/26

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers play the rubber match of a 3-game interleague series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas on Thursday evening. The Rangers won the opener 5-1 on Tuesday night behind RHP Kumar Rocker, while the Pirates exacted a little revenge by doubling up the Rangers 8-4 behind a 94-pitch quality start over 7 innings by RHP Braxton Ashcraft. The Pirates have won 3 of the past four starts by Ashcraft, too. In the past series finales after splitting the first 2 games, Pittsburgh is 2-1 in the deciding game this season.

The Rangers are 1-1 in the 3rd game of a series when splitting the first 2 matchups, last winning a series finale in Philadelphia on March 29 after going 1-1 in the first 2 games of the season. The most important factor here, though, is that the Rangers are a perfect 4-0 when RHP Jacob deGrom starts. He is just 1-0, but he has a sparkling 2.29 ERA and 1.07 WHIP. He held the ball in the yard last time out, though he was a bit wild in an 88-pitch effort over 4 innings in Seattle, walking 2 and going deep into counts. He has just 1 quality start to date despite the sparkling record. That came in L.A. against the Dodgers on April 12. DeGrom has had trouble with walks, but he limits the damage and is worth backing here.

Pirates vs Rangers best bet: Texas Rangers ML (-160) available at time of publishing. Playable to -175.

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