The Kansas City Royals and the Chicago Cubs meet Friday in MLB action from Wrigley Field. Kansas City just finished up a series versus the Mariners. The Royals lost two of the first three in that set, then in the finale KC took a two run loss to drop the series. As for Chicago, they played the White Sox this week, splitting a pair of games. Check back all season long for free MLB pics at Sports Chat Place.

Kansas City Royals 

Kansas City eked out a win over the Mariners in the Monday opener of their last series, but then fell 10-8 and 6-5 in the next two games. KC’s Nelson Velazquez posted a solo homer in the Wednesday loss. In the Thursday finale, the Royals blew a late 4-2 lead and ended up falling 6-4. Nelson Velazquez had a good day at the plate however, with two hits, two runs and a homer. 

As starting pitcher for Friday’s matchup, the Royals will send out Cole Ragans. In his 21 games (four starts) this year Ragans is 3-4 with a 4.21 ERA and 51 strikeouts over 47.0 innings. Ragans is 0-1 in his last three outings with an 8.10 ERA and three Ks in 3.1 frames. 

Chicago Cubs 

Over on the Cubs’ side, they played a crosstown matchup versus the White Sox at Wrigley this week. Tuesday’s game was a 5-3 defeat, but the Cubs evened it up with a 4-3 win in game two. The Cubs’ Christopher Morel came away with two hits, three RBI and a homer in the win, and Nick Madrigal added a solo home run of his own. 

In the starter slot for the Cubs on Friday it’ll be Jameson Taillon. In 21 starts so far Taillon is 7-7 with a 5.71 ERA and 91 Ks in 104.0 innings. Taillon is 58-42 with a 4.06 ERA in 164 career games, striking out 801 batters in 891.2 innings. 

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’m probably going to stay with the Cubs. Taillon will need to bounce back from his last effort, though. Back on August 13, Taillon took a loss to Toronto with eight earned in 3.0 innings on eight hits and two walks. The good news is that Taillon had been pitching well prior to that. He had a 2-0 record with four earned in 12.0 innings over his previous two outings. The Cubs are doing pretty well on offense these days also. Chicago has three or more runs in each of their last seven games. A good start from Taillon and a handful of baserunners should get Chicago into a winning position here.