Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins – Is KC the new Tampa Bay?

Kansas City Royals (12-10) at Minnesota Twins (11-11)
Friday, May 1

BetOnline MLB betting odds:  Twins -175, Royals +155, Total 9

The Twins will go with Kevin Slowey (3-0, 4.44 ERA), while the Royals counter with fellow right-hander Sidney Ponson (0-3, 5.79 ERA).

Here are some of the Baseball betting trends as they relate to this matchup:
(Numbers may go back to last season)

• KC has won 13 of its last 18 road games
• KC has played eight of its last 11 road games UNDER the total
• MINN has won four of its last six games
• MINN has played five of its last six games UNDER the total

In the HEAD-TO-HEAD sports betting trends:

• MINN has won eight of the last 12 meetings
• Four of the last five meetings have gone UNDER the total
• Four of the last five meetings in Minneapolis have gone UNDER the total

The Royals are now sitting in first place in the American League Central. Though they may not be the next Tampa Bay, as we suggested they might be before the season started, they could find themselves contending for the division crown for a while, with no clear-cut leader surfacing. Kansas City has done this mostly on the strength of a strong pitching rotation, which has compiled a 3.47 ERA. There are standouts – Zach Greinke has an ERA of 0.50, with Brian Bannister at 0.69 and Gil Meche at 3.77.

Sidney Ponson has not been a particularly outstanding member of this rotation, as he’s compiled a 5.79 ERA. The Royals have lost each of his four starts, but his last start was actually pretty respectable, as he held Detroit to three runs and six hits over eight innings, and didn’t walk anybody. That maybe the exception to the rule, but he’s not going to win many games if the Royals don’t support him, and they didn’t in that game, scoring just twice.

Kevin Slowey got off to a slow start, giving up ten earned runs in 11-1/3 innings. His last two outings have been very encouraging. Last time out, he went eight innings against the Indians and gave up just one run while striking out seven. Control is not a problem with Slowey, who has struck out 19 batters while surrendering only two bases on balls. So Kansas City will not get any cheap opportunities against him. Furthermore, he has had three sizzling starts against the Royals, with a 3-0 record and 1.04 WHIP ratio. He is going to be hard to beat here.

It looks like an advantage on the mound for the Twins, to be sure, but we don’t want to lay this kind of number. It’s just too steep. Rather, we’ll take a long look at the total, noticing that both these teams have shown semi-strong trends, and are ranked 11th and 12th in the AL in runs scored. It’s UNDER nine runs in the BetOnline Sportsbook.

JAY’S PLAY:  UNDER 9 (-105) ***
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)