Boston Red Sox vs. Kansas City Royals - 8/5/19 MLB Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox meet in game one of a three game set in MLB action from Fenway Park on Monday night.

The Kansas City Royals will look to bounce back after losing six straight and nine of their last ten games following a 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins last time out, resulting in their second straight series sweep and third straight series loss. Alex Gordon and Nicky Lopez each had a hit as the Royals had just two base hits in the losing effort with the rest of the team batting 0 for 22 with 5 strikeouts. Brad Keller took the loss, falling to 7-11 on the year after allowing two runs on five hits while striking out seven over seven innings of work. Mike Montgomery will start game one and is 1-4 with a 6.34 ERA and 23 strikeouts this season. This will be Montgomery’s second career start against Boston.

The Boston Red Sox will be in dire need of a win after losing eight games in a row, falling 7-4 to the New York Yankees in Sunday night’s series finale. Andrew Benintendi had two RBIs while Christian Vazquez and Michael Chavis each added a solo home run to round out Boston’s scoring as a team in the loss. J.D. Martinez went 2 for 4 while Mookie Betts added a base hit of his own to cap off Boston’s offense in the losing effort. David Price ended up with the loss, falling to 7-5 on the year after allowing all seven runs on nine hits while striking out three over just 2.2 innings of work. Rick Porcello will start game one and is 9-8 with a 5.74 ERA and 99 strikeouts this season. In his career, Porcello is 9-8 with a 4.66 ERA and 89 strikeouts against Kansas City.

Kansas City is 0-6 in their last 6 games overall and 15-43 in their last 58 games against the AL East while the over is 7-2 in their last 9 games overall. Boston is 0-8 in their last 8 games overall and 0-4 in their last 4 home games while the over is 6-0 in Porcello’s last 6 starts overall. Kansas City is 0-7 in the last 7 meetings between these two teams while the over is 20-7-3 in the last 30 meetings between these two teams and 7-3-2 in the last 12 meetings between these two teams in Boston.

I’m not trying to back either one of these teams right now in their current form, and side by side, you’d probably give Boston the edge to snap out of their funk here. However, I’m not trying to lay juice with Boston after losing eight in a row, and sending Porcello to the bump won’t help as he’s allowed five or more runs in five of his last seven starts. On the other side, Montgomery hasn’t been trustworthy in a starting role and has given up 10 runs in 11.1 innings across three starts since coming over from the Cubs. Instead, I’m going to side with the over. Both pitchers are prone to giving up runs, and the over has hit in each of Porcello’s last six starts. I think the pitching matchup screams for a high-scoring game here, so give me the over.