Overview
The Tampa Bay Rays try to avoid the four game sweep today in Kansas City when they take on the Royals. The Royals have won the first three game of this series in fairly easy fashion outscoring the Rays 25-13. The Royals have actually owned the Rays over the past few years winning 17 of the last 22 meetings overall including 11 of the last 12 played in Kansas City.
Head to Head Trends
Rays are 5-17 in the last 22 meetings.
Rays are 1-11 in the last 12 meetings in Kansas City.
Kansas City Royals (-122)
The Kansas City Royals are 1st in the American League Central 4.5 games up on the 2nd place Minnesota Twins. The Royals also own the best record in the entire American League at 49-33. The Royals are probably more know for having a great pitching staff and they do allowing just 3.63 runs per game but they also have a pretty good offense this season averaging 4.34 runs per game.
Taking the rubber for the Royals in this one is Yordano Ventura who is 3-6 with a 4.68 ERA on the season. Ventura will be making his start in just under a month he had a nerve inflammation problem but is apparently fine now.
Kansas City Royals Trends
Royals are 13-3 in their last 16 games as a favorite.
Royals are 9-4 in Venturas last 13 home starts.
Tampa Bay Rays (+112)
The Tampa Bay Rays are 4th in the American League East 3.5 games back of the 1st place New York Yankees. The Rays are lucky that everyone else in the AL East is also struggling because if they weren’t and with the Rays losing 10 of their last 11 games they could easily be 8 or 9 games back instead of just 3.5. The main reason for the Rays poor play of late is their pitching staff who are allowing 6.20 runs over their last 10 games.
On the hill for the Rays today is Nathan Karns who is 4-4 with a 3.21 ERA on the season. Karns has been solid this season especially on the road where he has just a 2.02 ERA but he did throw over 110 pitch’s in his last start for just the third time in his career and the other couple times he didn’t have the best outing in his next start.
Tampa Bay Rays Trends
Rays are 3-14 in their last 17 overall.
Rays are 3-11 in their last 14 games after losing the first 3 games of a series.
Conclusion
I’m going with the Kansas City Royals over the Rays in this one. The Rays are struggling big time right now while the Royals offense really seems to be heating up so the Rays pitching staff might be in for another tough day.
Free Pick: Kansas City Royals -122
