ROYALS (Volquez) @ BLUE JAYS (Dickey)
Take: ROYALS +126
Edinson Volquez and RA Dickey will be on the mound as the Royals and Blue Jays close out their weekend set in Toronto. This became a really enticing series with both KC and the Jays going all in at the trading deadline, and it has certainly lived up to expectations with two dynamite battles. I suspect we’ll get more of the same today.
The pitching matchup is pretty close. Volquez has the better season data, but the 30-day stats are close to a wash. For what it’s worth, however, Volquez has some really good numbers in his past dealings with the probable lineup he’s going to see here. On the flip side, some of the Royals have given Dickey a tough time in the past.
There’s great reason for all the excitement in Toronto, and it’s sure not going to be surprising if the Blue Jays put together a big run down the stretch. But it’s still true that this is a team that has underachieved all season as far as the W/L ledger is concerned. The Royals, on the other hand, have continued to make the most from the majority of their opportunities. This KC entry has played the entire season with loads of enthusiasm and I don’t think there’s any question they derived a great deal of motivation from the fluke tag so many assigned to them prior the start of the campaign.
It’s not easy to try and beat this thoroughly daunting Toronto lineup. But one constant remains with the Royals and that’s the premise that they need only to be even through six innings to almost always be the favorite down the stretch. The Blue Jays made a bullpen upgrade at the deadline, but their relief corps is still clearly second best in this duel and in fact, new Blue Jay Mark Lowe got victimized on Saturday.
The price here is interesting as one can perhaps make the case that it looks almost too easy to grab the generous price with the underdog Royals. But that’s the only way I can play this game as I think it’s a tossup and getting roughly a quarter with the visitors is pretty attractive. I’ll side with the Royals at plus money to win the rubber match today.
Discounted 2* MLB Best Bet available today. Just $12