The Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees meet Saturday in MLB playoffs action from Yankee Stadium. This will be the opener in a best-of-five postseason series. Here’s a NY Yankees vs Kansas City Royals Prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Yankees vs Royals pick.
Kansas City Royals Betting Preview
The Royals matched up against the Baltimore Orioles in the Wild Card series and managed a pair of close victories. Kansas City eked out a 1-0 win Tuesday, then in game two posted another win 2-1 to move on. Michael Massey (run), Bobby Witt (RBI), and Vinnie Pasquantino (RBI) each came away with a pair of hits in the victory.
For the starter gig on Saturday, the Royals are sending out Michael Wacha. This year Wacha went 13-8 with a 3.35 ERA in 29 starts. Wacha is 4-3 with a 5.21 ERA over eight career postseason games (six starts).
New York Yankees Betting Preview
Over on the Yankees’ side, they finished off the regular season at 94-68 overall, which was the best record in the American League by two games over the Cleveland Guardians. New York earned a bye to the Division Series and also won the American League East by three games over the Orioles.
The starter for Game 1 on Saturday will be New York’s Gerrit Cole. This year Cole went 8-5 with a 3.41 ERA in 17 starts. Over his 17 career postseason starts, Cole is 10-6 with a 2.93 ERA. Cole managed to limit the opposing batters to two or fewer runs in all but five starts this year. Two of the games in which he allowed more than that were against the city rivals Mets.
Total Runs Facts
- Each of the Royals’ last seven games as underdogs has gone UNDER the total runs line.
- Five of the Yankees’ last six playoff games have gone UNDER the total runs line.
- The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Royals’ last four night games.
- The ‘Inning 1 OVER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Yankees’ last five Saturday night games against AL Central opponents.
New York Yankees Player Prop Facts
- Gleyber Torres has recorded at least one Double in each of his last three appearances after not playing the previous day.
- Aaron Judge has hit a home run in each of the Yankees’ last five games against AL opponents.
- Aaron Judge has recorded at least one RBI in each of the Yankees’ last five games against AL opponents.
- DJ LeMahieu has recorded a hit in each of his last nine appearances in night playoff games.
- DJ LeMahieu has recorded at least one total base in each of his last nine appearances in night playoff games.
- DJ LeMahieu has scored at least one run in each of his last seven home appearances against the Royals.
- Anthony Rizzo has recorded at least one Single in each of his last nine Saturday appearances against AL teams that held a winning record.
- Aaron Judge ranks 1st in the league in Home Runs (58) this season.
Kansas City Royals Player Prop Facts
- Vinnie Pasquantino has hit a home run in two of his last three appearances in night games against AL East teams that held a winning record.
- Vinnie Pasquantino has recorded at least one RBI in each of his last six appearances in night games against AL East teams that held a winning record.
- Bobby Witt Jr. has scored a run in five of the Royals’ last six night games against AL opponents that held a winning record.
- Salvador Perez has recorded at least one Single in each of the Royals’ last 14 games as road underdogs against AL East opponents.
- Salvador Perez has recorded at least one hit in each of the Royals’ last 16 games as road underdogs against AL East opponents.
- Hunter Renfroe has recorded at least one total base in each of his last 12 appearances with his team as a road underdog against the Yankees.
- Bobby Witt Jr. ranks 1st amongst qualified players for Batting Average (.332) this season.
Matchup/League Facts
- The New York Yankees rank 1st in the league for home runs this season (237).
- The New York Yankees rank 1st in the league for walks this season (672).
- The Kansas City Royals rank 1st in the league for home runs allowed this season (146).
- The Kansas City Royals rank 2nd in the league for strikeouts against this season (1161).
NY Yankees vs Kansas City Royals Prediction
I’m going to lean toward the Yankees, even though it’s a pretty hefty line. Cole had a rough start back on September 14 versus the rival Boston Red Sox, giving up seven earned on five hits and three walks in 4.1 innings during a loss. In his two starts since then, however, Cole is 2-0 with just one earned run on four hits and two walks combined over 15.2 frames. New York should get a quality outing from Cole; it’ll be up to the bats to take advantage here.
As for the Royals, they posted a couple of nice efforts in their two wins over the Orioles, holding Baltimore to a combined 11 hits in that pair. Kansas City only mustered three runs in the two victories, however, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see another low-scoring finish Saturday. Ultimately, I like the Yankees to break through in the later innings, but it’ll be a fun series regardless of what happens in the opener.