The Baltimore Orioles’ win over the Houston Astros Sunday was certainly unexpected, but the scale of the surprise only becomes apparent when you look at the odds.
According to ESPN, some sportsbooks listed Baltimore as high as +420 underdogs before Sunday’s game, with the runaway Astros putting Justin Verlander on the mound against the hapless Orioles. That would be the largest upset dating back to 2005, according to archived odds from BetLabSports.com.
The Astros, meanwhile, became only the second favorite of -400 or greater to lose in Major League Baseball over the same span. The Minnesota Twins lost to the Washington Nationals in 2007 in a game in which the Nationals were +390 underdogs.
No matter how you look at it, the odds indicate this was one of the biggest upsets in baseball in the last decade and a half. It required a walkoff home run in a three-run bottom of the ninth to happen, and that came after a massive blunder that justified Baltimore’s underdog status.
