Kansas City Royals vs. Cincinnati Reds – 8/18/20 MLB Pick, Odds, and Prediction
2020-08-18 20:05:00 EDT
The Cincinnati Reds and the Kansas City Royals meet Tuesday in MLB action from Kauffman Stadium.
Cincinnati hasn’t played since Friday in an 8-1 victory over the Pirates. The Reds’ following two weekend games were postponed due to a virus outbreak. As for the Royals, they just finished up against the Twins over the weekend, losing two of the first three games in that set. In the Monday finale, the Royals fell 4-1 to drop the series. Check back all season long for free MLB picks and MLB predictions at Sports Chat Place.
The Reds have had a few nice offensive performances this season. Nick Castellanos is hitting pretty well on eight homers, 19 RBI, 15 runs and a .267 batting average so far. Jesse Winker isn’t far behind with five homers and eight RBI with 10 runs and a .365 BA. Other important Cincinnati guys like Eugenio Suarez (.123 average) and Joey Votto (.233 average) have gotten off to tepid starts, however.
For the Tuesday starting role, the Reds will call on Luis Castillo. This season, Castillo is 0-2 over four starts with a 3.91 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 23.0 innings of work. Castillo sports a 28-29 record over the course of his MLB career, with a 3.69 ERA and 520 Ks in 472.2 total innings.
Over on the Royals’ side, Monday’s game was full of missed opportunities, as the team failed to score until the ninth inning in the loss. Maikel Franco led the way with two hits, and Kris Bubic dropped to 0-3 with his loss on 4.1 innings and two earned.
For Tuesday’s starting pitcher role, Kansas City will go with Brad Keller. Across two starts in 2020, Keller has a 2-0 record with a clean 0.00 ERA and 10 strikeouts in 11.0 innings. In his MLB career, Keller is 18-20 with a 3.55 ERA and 228 Ks in 316.2 innings of work total.
The Reds are 5-1 in their last six games as a road favorite and 6-2 in their last eight games overall as a favorite. Cincinnati is 5-11 in their last 16 during game one of a series and 2-5 in their last seven Tuesday games.
Meanwhile, the Royals are 103-215 in their last 318 games as an underdog and 17-36 in their last 53 games as a home underdog. Kansas City is 9-25 in their last 34 versus the National League Central and 1-4 in their last five during game one of a series.
Pick: I’m going to lean Royals here. I expect Castillo to post a better start in this one; he gave up three runs (one earned) over six innings in a no-decision on August 11 versus Kansas City, and looked like he was struggling a bit. In any case, Keller has been great on the other side, and he’s got 11 straight shutout innings to start 2020. If Keller can keep that going, the Royals will be in a nice position to take a win.
