Red Sox vs. Royals Pick
Will the Boston Red Sox go on the road and hand the Kansas City Royals another home loss when they meet up tonight at 8:15PM ET?
According to oddsmakers at BetDSI, the Red Sox are the slight favorites on the road, when they are getting odds of -110 to win, while the Royals are getting a money line of +100 to prevail. The over/under total for the game is listed at 9.5 runs. These two have yet to meet this season.
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The pitching matchup today has Hector Velasquez (1-1, 6.48 ERA) on the mound for Boston to face Jason Hammel (3-6, 5.05) of the Royals. Velasquez is making his third appearance of 2017 and just his second start. He has gone 8.1 innings this season, allowing six earned runs with three walks and six strikeouts. His WHIP is 1.56. Hammel is coming off back-to-back solid starts for KC. He has gone 13.2 innings and allowed just two runs in those two starts. For the season, Hammel has 55 strikeouts with 24 walks and a 1.47 WHIP.
Boston is coming off a nice series win at Houston. The Sox have won five of their last seven games entering tonight. Boston is 39-30 overall and 18-19 on the road. The Red Sox are putting up 4.67 runs per game while allowing 4.25 per game. The Sox are being led by Xander Bogaerts, who is hitting .318 with 18 doubles and 30 RBI. Mookie Betts has 23 doubles, 12 homers and 38 RBI.
The Royals are rolling right now, winning seven of their last eight games, all on the road. KC is now 33-35 overall and 17-16 at home. The Royals now average 3.96 runs per game while giving up 4.44. Salvador Perez is leading the team with 14 home runs and 38 RBI while Eric Hosmer is hitting .307 with 16 doubles and 28 RBI.
While the Red Sox have the better team on paper, Kansas City is coming home on fire after a great road trip. Their offense is starting to improve and today they get to face an inexperienced pitcher that they can tee off on. Hammel has poor numbers for the season, but also is heating up. I think he continues to build of his last two starts and leads KC to another win.
MLB DAILY PREDICTION: KANSAS CITY ROYALS +100