Overview
The Tampa Bay Rays are Kansas City tonight for the first game of a three game series versus the Royals. The Royals have owned the Rays over the past few seasons winning 20 of the last 26 meetings overall and 12 of the last 13 played at home in Kansas City.
Head to Head Trends
Rays are 6-20 in the last 26 meetings.
Rays are 1-12 in the last 13 meetings in Kansas City.
Kansas City Royals (-105)
The Kansas City Royals are 1st in the American League Central with a 27-22 record just a half game up on the 2nd place Cleveland Indians. The Royals had a quick start to the season winning 7 of their first 9 games but after that they didn’t really do much especially with the bats.
The Royals have however picked it up of late winning 10 of their last 13 games mainly because they are swinging the bats much better batting .308 as a team and averaging 5.20 runs per game over their last 10 games.
On the hill for the Royals today is Ian Kennedy who is 4-3 with a 3.38 ERA on the season. Kennedy started the season with a couple good quality starts but since then he hasn’t been all that good although to be fair most of his starts since have come away from home and against some pretty good hitting teams.
Kansas City Royals Trends
Royals are 5-1 in their last 6 overall.
Royals are 51-23 in their last 74 home games.
Tampa Bay Rays (-105)
The Tampa Bay Rays are last in the American League East 4 games under .500 and 7 games out of 1st place. The Rays were one of the worst offensive teams in the league in April batting .225 while averaging just 3.30 runs per game. Things changed for the Rays in May batting .249 as a team and averaging 4.92 runs per game but the thing that really stands out is the Rays are leading the league in homeruns during the month of May with 43.
Why am I mentioning the homeruns? because that type of homerun pace won’t last and they’re not a very good hitting team so when the long balls start to dry up the Rays are going to struggle big time. It already seems to be happening as they have scored under 2 runs in 3 of their last 4 games.
Starting for the Rays today is Matt Andriese who is 3-0 with a 2.63 ERA in four starts this season. Andriese had a couple supreb outings to start the season but in his last couple he’s come back down to earth a bit.
Tampa Bay Rays Trends
Rays are 1-6 in their last 7 vs. a team with a winning record.
Rays are 9-25 in their last 34 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600.
Conclusion
I’m going with the Kansas City Royals over the Rays in this one. I think the pitching matchup is fairly even so this game comes down to offense. We have the Royals offense who are red hot right now versus the Rays who were hot not too long ago but it looks like they have cooled off and I think they’re going to struggle to score runs over the month or so.
Free Pick: Kansas City Royals -105
