The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Kansas City Royals meet Wednesday in MLB action from Kauffman Stadium. This will be the finale in a three-game series. Pittsburgh took a shutout win in the opener, then in game two the Pirates kept things rolling with a three-run victory. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates surged on 12 team hits during Monday’s opener, ultimately pulling off a nice 5-0 shutout win. Johan Oviedo went the distance on the mound with two hits, two walks and five Ks. On Tuesday the Pirates scored two runs in the eighth and four more in the ninth during a 6-3 win. Liover Peguero led the way on three hits, two runs, three RBI and a homer.
In the starter role Wednesday the Pirates will go with Andre Jackson. So far Jackson is 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA in 12 games (two starts) this year. Jackson has a 3.32 ERA over his last five games (two starts) and 20 Ks in 19.0 innings.
Pittsburgh Pirates Team Facts
- The Pirates have lost each of their last 13 Wednesday night games against American League opponents.
- The Pirates have failed to cover the run line in each of their last 13 Wednesday night games against American League opponents.
- The Pirates have trailed after 7 innings in each of their last five Wednesday night games against American League opponents that held a losing record.
- The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Pirates’ last three road games.
- The Pirates have trailed after 5 innings in each of their last six Wednesday night games against American League opponents that held a losing record.
Kansas City Royals
Over on the Royals’ side, they couldn’t get anything going at the plate Monday with just three batters getting on base. Kansas City’s MJ Melendez and Drew Waters each had one hit. In game two Kansas City had a 1-0 lead for a few innings before things fell apart. Freddy Fermin had two hits and two RBI though, and Cole Ragans pitched 7.0 clean frames with nine Ks.
On starting pitcher duties Wednesday it’ll be Angel Zerpa. This year in seven games (two starts) Zerpa is 1-2 with a 7.79 ERA and 14 Ks in 17.1 innings. Zerpa is 3-4 with a 4.59 ERA in his career.
Kansas City Royals Team Facts
- The Royals have lost each of their last seven night games after playing the previous day.
- The Royals have failed to cover the run line each of their last four night games against teams that held a losing record.
- The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Royals’ last four games.
Matchup/League Facts
- The Kansas City Royals ranks 2nd in the league for triples this season (35).
- The Kansas City Royals ranks 29th in the league for on-base percentage this season (.297).
- The Pittsburgh Pirates ranks 27th in the league for batting average this season (.235).
- The Pittsburgh Pirates ranks 4th in the league for walks this season (470).
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’ll probably end up sticking with the Pirates here. Pittsburgh has been pretty good when it comes to plating runs lately. They’ve got four or more runs in seven of their last nine games, and now a combined 11 runs in two games during this series. Speaking of which, Kansas City is in a bit of a scoring slump. The Royals have three or fewer runs in four straight games, and two or fewer runs in three of the last four. Jackson is coming off 6.0 innings of two-run ball on six hits versus the Cubs, so he should be able to keep Pittsburgh in range. The offense should do the rest if all goes well.
