The Tampa Bay Rays and the Kansas City Royals meet Thursday in MLB action from Kauffman Stadium. Here’s a Kansas City Royals vs Tampa Bay Rays prediction. This will be the final installment in a three-game series. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for the game.
Tampa Bay Rays Betting Preview
In their last series over the weekend, the Rays played the Washington Nationals. Tampa Bay lost 8-1 in the Saturday game but won the other pair for a series victory. Following a 5-1 win over the Royals in their opener, on Wednesday the Rays lost 4-2. Starter Ryan Pepiot put up 4.0 innings with two earned runs.
On the mound for Thursday’s start will be Zach Eflin. This year over his 15 starts Eflin is 4-5 with a 3.92 ERA. In his MLB career Eflin is 56-58 with a 4.25 ERA in 173 games (161 starts).
Kansas City Royals Betting Preview
Over on the Royals’ side, they had a series versus the Cleveland Guardians over the weekend. Kansas City did well in that one, winning 2-1, 10-3 and 6-2 in three of the four outings. On Wednesday the Royals had seven hits in the win. Michael Wacha finished with 6.0 innings and one earned run.
Alec Marsh gets the starter call for the Royals on Thursday. This year Marsh is 6-5 with a 4.19 ERA in 15 starts. Marsh has a career record of 9-14 with a 4.90 ERA in 32 games (23 starts).
Total Runs Facts
- Each of the Rays’ last four road games have gone UNDER the total runs line.
- Six of the last seven games between the Rays and Royals at Kauffman Stadium have gone UNDER the total runs line.
- The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Rays’ last seven Thursday night games.
Kansas City Royals Player Prop Facts
- Bobby Witt Jr. has hit a home run in four of the Royals’ last six games against the Rays.
- Bobby Witt Jr. has recorded a Double in four of the Royals’ last five games as underdogs against AL East opponents.
- Bobby Witt Jr. has recorded at least one RBI in each of the Royals’ last six games against the Rays.
- Salvador Perez has recorded at least one Single in each of the Royals’ last six games as underdogs against the Rays.
- Bobby Witt Jr. has scored at least one run in each of the Royals’ last four games against AL East opponents.
- Bobby Witt Jr. has recorded two or more total bases in each of the Royals’ last seven games against AL East opponents.
- MJ Melendez has recorded at least one hit in each of the Royals’ last eight home games against the Rays.
- Bobby Witt Jr. ranks T4th in the league in Steals (22) this season.
Tampa Bay Rays Player Prop Facts
- Brandon Lowe has hit a home run in three of the Rays’ last four games at Kauffman Stadium against opponents that held a winning record.
- Randy Arozarena has recorded a Double in each of the Rays’ last three games as road favorites.
- Isaac Paredes has recorded at least one RBI in each of the Rays’ last four night games.
- Zach Eflin has recorded a win in six of his last eight appearances in night games against AL teams that held a winning record.
- Brandon Lowe has scored at least one run in five of his last six appearances with the Rays as road favorites.
- Zach Eflin has recorded four or more strikeouts in each of his last six appearances with the Rays as road favorites against AL opponents.
- Isaac Paredes has recorded at least one hit in each of the Rays’ last 11 road games against AL opponents that held a winning record.
- Yandy Diaz has recorded at least one Single in 12 of the Rays’ last 14 night games.
- Amed Rosario has recorded at least one total base in 14 of his last 15 road appearances against AL opponents that held a winning record.
Matchup/League Facts
- The Kansas City Royals rank T2nd in the league for triples this season (23).
- The Kansas City Royals rank 3rd in the league for strikeouts against this season (615).
- The Tampa Bay Rays rank 29th in the league for home runs allowed this season (115).
- The Tampa Bay Rays are one of only 4 teams in the league to rank top 10 in both strikeouts and walks allowed this season.
Kansas City Royals vs Tampa Bay Rays Prediction
I’ll stay with the Rays, but I could probably go either way. Eflin took a loss to Pittsburgh on June 22 with 7.0 innings and four earned but bounced back in his last outing. In that one Eflin took out the Nationals with 6.0 clean innings in a win. As for Marsh, he’s got four earned runs over his last two starts in 11.2 innings, going 1-1 in that pair.
On Wednesday the Rays were out-hit 7-5 in the loss. Tampa Bay had a couple of big innings but overall there wasn’t much going on at the plate. The Rays should return to form Thursday if all goes well. It’ll be an interesting game regardless.