Kansas City Royals (49-73) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (64-55)
August 21, 2022 1:40 pm EDT
The Line: Tampa Bay Rays -170 / Kansas City Royals +143; Over/Under: -7.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Kansas City Royals and the Tampa Bay Rays meet Sunday in MLB action from Tropicana Field. This will be the finale a four-game series. After a split in the first pair, in game three on Saturday the Rays bagged a three-run win. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.
Kansas City took a rough 7-1 loss in the Thursday opener of this set, but bounced back for a 3-2 win on Friday. In the Saturday game, the Royals posted just four hits in a 5-2 loss. Starter Kris Bubic gave up four in 3.2 innings on eight hits and two walks.
For the starter job in the Sunday finale, the Royals are going with Zack Greinke. In his 20 starts so far Greinke is 4-8 with a 4.13 ERA. In 104.2 innings total he has 121 hits, 48 earned, 20 walks and 62 Ks.
Over on the Rays’ side, they fought back from an early deficit in the Friday game but eventually lost it in 10 innings. On Saturday Tampa scored three in the second inning on the way to the victory. Drew Rasmussen went 5.2 frames with two earned, two hits and one walk.
As the starter for the Sunday game, the Rays will send out Ryan Yarbrough. Over 14 games (eight starts) so far Yarbrough is 1-7 with a 4.75 ERA. In 60.2 innings he has 46 Ks with 32 earned on 65 hits and 15 walks.
PICK: I’m going to stay with the Rays. That said, I do like Greinke to do pretty well here, and we should have a close, lower-scoring game. Over his last two starts, Greinke has a combined 12.1 innings with just one earned on 18 hits and zero walks. He did have a rough appearance versus Boston (4.2 innings; four earned) back on August 5, though. All things considered, this should be a pretty fun matchup.
