The Kansas City Royals and the Houston Astros meet Friday in MLB action from Minute Maid Park. Kansas City is coming off a nice series versus the Guardians, posting a three-game sweep. As for Houston, they played the Orioles in their last series. The Astros managed to win just one of those three games, however. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.

Kansas City Royals 

The Royals posted a 6-4 win over the Guardians in their Monday opener, then eked out a 7-6 win in the Tuesday game two. Kansas City made it a sweep in the finale with a 6-2 victory. The Royals’ Nelson Velazquez posted a three-run homer in the game three win, while Bobby Witt added two hits, two runs and an RBI. 

Cole Ragans will take the mound for the Royals on Friday. This year in his 27 games (10 starts) Ragans is 6-4 with a 3.33 ERA and 100 Ks in 83.2 innings. Ragans is 3-1 with a 2.81 ERA over his last seven starts. 

Kansas City Royals Team Facts

The Royals have lost each of their last eight road games against teams that held a winning record.
The Royals have covered the run line in each of their last six night games against American League opponents.
The Royals have trailed after 7 innings in each of their last eight road games against opponents that held a winning record.
The ‘Inning 1 OVER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Royals’ last three night games at Minute Maid Park.
The Royals have won the first inning in three of their last four games as underdogs against the Astros at Minute Maid Park.

Houston Astros 

Over on the Astros’ side, they took a tough loss 8-7 to the Orioles on Monday, then followed that up with a 9-5 defeat in game two. Houston was able to stave off the sweep in game three however, taking a 2-1 win on Wednesday. The Astros got one RBI each from Jeremy Pena and Mauricio Dubon (run) in the winning effort. 

It’ll be Framber Valdez in the start for the Astros on Friday. So far over his 29 starts Valdez is 12-10 with a 3.20 ERA and 183 Ks in 188.2 innings. Valdez is 3-3 with a 2.89 ERA over his last seven starts with 39 Ks in 46.2 innings. 

Houston Astros Team Facts

The Astros have lost eight of their last nine games as home favorites against American League opponents.
The Astros have failed to cover the run line in eight of their last nine games as home favorites against American League opponents.
The Astros have trailed after 7 innings in seven of their last nine games as home favorites against American League opponents.
The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Astros’ last seven games as home favorites against AL Central opponents.
The Astros have trailed after 3 innings in 10 of their last 15 games as home favorites against American League opponents.

Matchup/League Facts

The Houston Astros rank 3rd in the league for strikeouts against this season (1170).
The Houston Astros rank 4th in the league for hits this season (1363).
The Kansas City Royals rank 2nd in the league for triples this season (40).
The Kansas City Royals rank 29th in the league for walks this season (388).

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’ll stick with the Astros in this one. Valdez is pitching well these days. Over his last three starts Valdez is 2-1 with just four earned over 21.0 innings. He’s gone exactly 7.0 innings in each of those and should be able to work deeper into the game here as well. As for Ragans, he gave up five earned in 6.0 innings during his last outing (versus the Astros) but prior to that he had just two earned in 11.2 frames. I like both starters to do pretty well here, but if Houston can get the bats going at all they should be in good shape for a W in the opener.