Boston Red Sox vs. Kansas City Royals MLB Picks, Odds, Predictions 6/19/2021

The Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox meet in MLB action from Kauffman Stadium on Saturday.

The Boston Red Sox will try to rebound from a 5-3 loss at the hands of the Royals on Friday. Rafael Devers had a solo home run while J.D. Martinez and Alex Verdugo each had an RBI as well to cap off Boston’s scoring as a team in the defeat. Christian Vazquez went 3 for 4 with a double while Marwin Gonzalez, Danny Santana, Hunter Renfroe and Christian Arroyo each had a base hit to finish off the total offense for the Red Sox in the losing effort. Nick Pivetta took the loss, falling to 6-3 on the year after allowing three earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts over five innings of work. Martin Perez will start here and is 4-4 with a 4.52 ERA and 54 strikeouts this season. in his career, Perez is 1-1 with a 5.28 ERA and 27 strikeouts against Kansas City.

The Kansas City Royals will look to build on their win over Boston on Friday. Adalberto Mondesi led the way with three RBIs coming on a 3^rd inning home run while Salvador Perez had a solo home run and Whit Merrifield added a pair of doubles with an RBI to finish off the scoring for KC in the winning effort. Nicky Lopez had a pair of hits while Michael A. Taylor, Jorge Soler and Carlos Santana each had a base hit to finish off the offense for KC in the win. Kris Bubic got the win in relief to improve to 2-2 on the year while Greg Holland closed out the 9^th for his 4^th save. Brad Keller will start here and is 6-6 with a 6.14 ERA and 60 strikeouts this season. This will be Keller’s second career start against Boston.

Boston is 6-1 in their last 7 road games and 5-1 in their last 6 Saturday games while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games against the AL Central. Kansas City is 2-11 in their last 13 games overall and 1-5 in their last 6 home games while the over is 3-0-1 in their last 4 Saturday games. The over is 21-10-3 in the last 34 meetings between these two teams and 13-4-1 in the last 18 meetings between these two teams in Kansas City.

The Red Sox are the better team on the road without question, but Perez has struggled mightily in his last couple of starts and if he’s not careful he could get lit up again here. On the other hand, Keller’s been a decent pitcher for the Royals, but he’s also struggled in keeping runs off of the board and I think this could be a game that hits the over by the middle innings.