Tigers vs Royals Baseball Picks
The Tigers may have lost three in a row to red hot Tampa over the weekend but they tuned up during the week by taking two from the Dodgers. Now they are ready to extend their lead in the AL Central.
Detroit Tigers (50-37) vs. Kansas City Royals
Thursday July 10
Kaufmann Stadium – Kansas City, MO
8:10PM
Probable Pitchers
DET: Drew Smyly (L)
KC: Jeremy Guthrie (R)
Moneyline: Kansas City -109, Detroit -101
Total: 8.5
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Detroit
When the Royals visited their house they were not very hospitable and now Detroit will look to return the favour.
They won both games against L.A. without the services of Victor Martinez. He might be back in the lineup Thursday and is enjoying a career year with 21 homers already.
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Even though the Tigers have been much better lately Smyly is in a bit of a slump.
The fact is the Tigers have lost 6 of his last 8 starts and there have been a couple of outings where he has failed to reach the 5th inning.
Overall his numbers are far from terrible but his walk rate is way up from what we saw when he was dynamite out of the pen last season.
Kansas City
The Royals might have peaked too soon when they overtook the Tigers last month.
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Now they are hoping to gather some of that momentum back but it will be tough because they have suffered some recent injuries. For at least the opener of this series they will be without Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas, Norichika Aoki is also out until after the All-Star break.
For a team that struggles to score those injuries might be too much to handle and certainly don’t help with this series.
The Royals are in a battle to stay relevant and they need more from innings eater Jeremy Guthrie.
He is coming off of his shortest outing of the season but he has shown some penchant for being strong when the stakes are high. Last month on the road he had arguably his best start of the season in a road win over the Tigers, striking out 9 pussy cats over 6+ innings.
They need him to be strong like that in this series too.
Neither of these starters are the best these teams have to offer and Guthrie is often a fade candidate for me.
Even though there are some key bats out of the lineup I look for the offenses to be strong in this one and I am surprised at the relatively low total.
Look for the over to be solid after some early fireworks on both sides.
Total prediction: Over
Score prediction: Detroit 6 – Kansas City 4
