Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals Betting Preview
Thursday afternoon features an AL Central battle as the Minnesota Twins (4-8) square off with the Kansas City Royals (5-5). The Royals will host this one at Kauffman Stadium, with the first pitch scheduled for 2:10 pm ET.
The Royals have taken the first two games of this series, including a 2-0 victory on Wednesday.
In the win, Daniel Lynch went five scoreless innings, allowing just four hits. Offensively, the Royals managed just six hits, but they were able to scratch across the two runs by Whit Merrifield and Andrew Benintendi.
In the loss, Chris Paddack went five innings, allowing two runs on five hits. The Twins had just five hits and left 11 on base in the defeat.
Despite taking the first two games, the Twins are the slight favorites playing on the road in the finale. They are -122 to win while the Royals’ moneyline sits at +104. The runline features Kansas City +1.5 (-166), and the over/under for total runs is eight.
Pitching Matchup
The Twins will turn to righty Joe Ryan (1-1, 2.70 ERA) to try to pick up the win Thursday. He picked up the win over Boston in his last outing, going six innings and allowing just a single run.
The Royals will counter with 38-year-old veteran Zack Greinke (0-0, 2.45 ERA). Greinke is still looking for his first win back in a Royals uniform. In his last outing, he allowed two earned runs in 5.1 innings against the Tigers.
Twins Try To Salvage Finale
For a team that made major moves in the offseason, including the acquisitions of Sonny Gray, Carlos Correa, and Gary Sanchez, the Twins have gotten off to a rough start thus far at 4-8. On Thursday, they will try to salvage the finale against the division rival Royals.
For Correa, the prized free-agent acquisition is currently hitting .190/.277/.310 with a home run and a whopping 15 strikeouts. He will be going against his former Astros’ teammate in Zack Greinke. In 12 career at bats against the righty, he is hitting just .083.
Minnesota’s hottest hitter early in the season is Byron Buxton, who is hitting .250/.308/.750 with three home runs and four runs batted in. Unfortunately, after suffering a knee injury, Buxton is questionable for this game.
Royals Look To Finish Homestand With A Sweep
After Thursday’s game, the Kansas City Royals will head to Seattle to take on the Mariners. Before they do so, they would love to finish a sweep at Kauffman Stadium. After going 1-2 against the Tigers to start the homestand, taking all three from the Twins would leave a much better taste in their mouths as they hit the road for six games.
Leading the Royals’ offense has been catcher Salvador Perez. Despite struggling with blurred vision, something he has been dealing with for a few seasons, he is still hitting .237/.275/.579 with a team-leading four home runs, six runs batted in, and five runs scored.
This will be the first time that anyone from Kansas City has squared off against the Twins’ righty Joe Ryan.
Take Kansas City On The Runline
This one is a tough one to call. 25-year-old Joe Ryan has been electric to start the season, but it is also hard to discount a savvy veteran like Zack Greinke.
Like Thursday’s game, it wouldn’t be surprising to see runs hard to come by in this one, meaning that playing the under eight runs on the total might be a solid play.
Since it has the potential to be low-scoring and close, taking the runline seems like the best bet. In this case, that means taking Kansas City +1.5.
