Rangers vs. Royals Pick
Can the Texas Rangers continue their dominance of the Kansas City Royals when the two close their weekend series today at 2:15PM ET?
According to oddsmakers at BetDSI, Texas is favored on the road today, as the Rangers are getting odds of -130 to win, while the Royals are getting a money line of +110 to prevail. The over/under total for the game has been set at 8.5 runs.
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The pitching matchup in this one has Yu Darvish (6-8, 3.49 ERA) on the mound for Texas to face Ian Kennedy (3-6, 4.45) of the Royals. Darvish has been largely good as of late, allowing two earned runs or less in three of his last four starts. He has 125 strikeouts on the season with 41 walks and a 1.13 WHIP. Kennedy has actually been on a nice run entering the break. He allowed just nine earned runs over his last five starts. Kennedy has 76 strikeouts with 36 walks this season and a 1.17 WHIP.
The Rangers have added to their win streak over Kansas City, moving it to 12 straight games thanks to 5-3 and 1-0 wins in this series. Texas is now 45-45 on the season and 20-25 on the road while the Royals are 44-45 overall and 24-21 at home.
Saturday saw a great pitching matchup. Danny Duffy took the loss despite pitching 8.1 innings and allowed only five hits. Cole Hamels pitched 7.2 scoreless innings and didn’t get the decision for the Rangers. The lone run in this game came on a Shin-Soo Choo single in the ninth inning that scored Joey Gallo. Carlos Gomez was the lone player in the game that had multiple hits.
Texas continues to have Kansas City’s number and the two enter into today’s game with the Rangers seemingly having the edge again. Darvish has had a few poor outings, but he has largely been a pitcher that the Rangers can count on. Kennedy is on a nice run for himself as well, but I worry that the KC batting order is struggling again. I am not sure Kennedy will get the run support he needs to battle against Darvish.
MLB DAILY PREDICTION: TEXAS RANGERS -130