Overview
The Seattle Mariners are in Kansas City again today for game two if their four game series with the Royals. The Royals made a late comeback in yesterdays game scoring 2 runs in the 8th inning and another 2 in the 9th for the 4-3 win.
Head to Head Trends
Mariners are 4-0 in Iwakumas last 4 starts vs. Royals.
Under is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings.
Kansas City Royals (-105)
The Kansas City Royals are 3rd in the American League Central 7 games back of the 1st place Cleveland Indians. The Royals haven’t been playing very good ball this season they actually have a -0.28 run differential which means they should be probably 5 or 10 games under .500 instead of the 3 games over .500 that they are.
Taking the mound for the Royals in this one is Yordano Ventura who is 6-6 with a 5.26 ERA on the season. Ventura has had a few decent starts but he’s had more bad starts and he just hasn’t been very good in general this season.
Kansas City Royals Trends
Royals are 1-4 in their last 5 overall.
Royals are 38-14 in their last 52 home games.
Seattle Mariners (-105)
The Seattle Mariners are 3rd in the American League West 9.5 games back of the 1st place Texas Rangers. I think the Mariners are a pretty good well rounded team. The Mariners are averaging 4.90 runs per game on offense while allowing just 4.33 runs per game on defense so unlike the Royals who have over performed their run differential the Mariners have under performed at just 43-43 on the season.
On the hill for the Mariners today is Hisashi Iwakuma who is 8-6 with a 4.43 ERA on the season. Iwakuma has been fairly solid this season although he has been hurt by the long ball of late surrendering 11 homes runs over his last 7 starts.
Seattle Mariners Trends
Mariners are 0-4 in their last 4 overall.
Mariners are 12-5 in Iwakumas last 17 road starts.
Conclusion
I like the Seattle Mariners over the Royals in this one. I think the Mariners are probably the slightly better team in general but this is largely a gut play and also a fade of the Royals offense who are batting just .192 over their last 5 games.
Free Pick: Seattle Mariners -105
