In today’s MLB betting guide, the Cleveland Guardians look to break their slide against the Kansas City Royals, while the Milwaukee Brewers try to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates again today.
Kansas City Royals (+105) vs Cleveland Guardians (-125)
Today is the day the Guardians snap their losing streak, as they have the best opponent to do so against. Cleveland has lost five in a row and six consecutive games on the road, but it has to end at some point. They have one of their better starters on the mound to help them do so as Triston McKenzie is coming off a one-hit seven-inning start. He bounced back nicely from consecutive tough outings but generally has been reliable for the Guardians with a sub-.1.00 WHIP (walks+hits per inning pitched). The bats of the Guardians will really need to get going, and today is a great pitcher to do it against as well.
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The Royals have Jonathan Heasley on the mound to start as he too had a strong outing after consecutive forgettable starts. He has improved slightly from his rookie season, but will generally give up at least three runs per game. The Guardians have lost a couple of tight games recently, so getting a few runs against the Royals’ starter may be key. Kansas City’s betting has been spread out and nobody has been amazing, but they have all been getting on base and scoring runs as a team. Overall, they’re still 29th in the MLB in runs per game, so it shouldn’t last for too much longer. Take the Guardians to snap their losing streak and the under (U9, -115).
Milwaukee Brewers (-250) vs Pittsburgh Pirates (+200)
The Brewers took game one of this three-game series and have every advantage to go up 2-0 today. The Pirates are 26th ranked or worse in runs, hits, runs allowed, and hits allowed per game this season and nothing pops out tonight other than a group of their batters who have been able to hammer home runs but hit for lower averages. Their starting pitcher today, Zach Thompson, has pitched very average this season and doesn’t go deep into games. He’s allowed exactly two earned runs in four of his past five starts and hasn’t gone more than 5.2 innings. Expect the batting, though not playing great, to be able to score a few runs early on the Pirates.
The Brewers will generally have the pitching advantage on every team since they are able to have their relievers do as much damage as their starters. Brandon Woodruff gets the start for Milwaukee which doesn’t bode well for the Pirates. Woodruff has allowed one run or fewer in four of his past five starts and strikes out a ton. Expect that number to rise seeing how the Pirates’ batting has been playing out. The Pirates are very weak within their division, and the Brewers are the better pick in this one. Since the odds are so lopsided, take the Brewers’ runline (-1.5, -120) and the under (U7.5, -110).
Odds via Yahoo and BetMGM.
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