Royals (62-56) vs Tigers (70-49)
A month ago it didn’t look like this series would be all that meaningful…but with Kansas City’s recent strong play they are actually in the conversation as it relates to the American League Central and certainly the Wild Card race.
Thursday Aug 14
Comerica Park – Detroit, MI
7:08PM
Probable Starters:
KC: Jeremy Guthrie (R)
DET: Anibal Sanchez
Moneyline: Detroit -185, Kansas City +175
O/U: 8.5
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Kansas City
They enter this series 7.5 games back f Detroit but just a game and a half back of Cleveland. They need to play well or else all their recent work could be for not. Kansas City is 5-3 against Detroit this season including a split of two games at Detroit back in April.
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The reason for the surge by the Royals is that their pitching has held while their bats finally came alive.
Jeremy Guthrie is enjoying a fine season with the Royals and the team is 15-9 when he starts. He actually has a better record against the Tigers than I would have guessed at 7-3, but he was roughed up the last time he faced them, giving up 5 runs in 6 innings while collecting the victory.
Tigers Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera are hitting .375 against him so he better be careful.
Detroit
Since their 12 game winning streak came to end the Detroit Tigers are just 2-4, which is a bit surprising given they were playing a couple of struggling teams in the Yankees and White Sox. They now return home and need to take care of business against K.C. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
At least they have a little momentum taking the final game of their set against the White Sox. 3B Miguel Cabrera hit his 38th homer and has homered in 6 of his last 8 games. His three RBI also reclaimed the lead in that category from the Orioles 1B Chris Davis.
Starter Anibal Sanchez is having a great season but the team is not always a winner when he takes the mound. Although he has an ERA more than a run better than Guthrie’s the Tigers are just 11-9 when he starts. He is getting plenty of support too with an average of 5 runs per game but it must be oddly distributed for him to have those mediocre won-loss splits.
In 3 starts against the Royals he has an ERA of just 0.82 but is 1-2. They don’t exactly have his number but he is not registering the wins you would expect either.
There are some strange things going on in terms of numbers in this game on Thursday. Guthrie gets hit well by the Tigers sluggers but he keeps the ball in the park while Sanchez gives up nothing and can’t get a victory. It doesn’t make sense but it doesn’t mean it won’t happen again.
I am going to go with the historical angle especially given Detroit has been a bit off lately.
O/U Pick: Under
Score Prediction: Kansas City 3 – Detroit 2
