First 5 Over 4.5
Pittsburgh and Houston open with a first five total of just 4.5, priced like a quiet pitchers duel, but the early scoring says that number is short. Pittsburgh has averaged 3.4 runs through five over its last 20 games and Houston adds nearly 3 more, putting the combined first five baseline above 6, and the first two games of this series already cleared the number with 6 and 7 combined runs by the middle innings. The over 4.5 is the cheap side at -102, a CORE-rated 82 free read, with the GEMs and the rest of the slate in the Terminal.
