Friday night baseball and I will have a Free Pick in the game between the St Louis Cardinals and the Kansas city Royals, which will be played at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City. First pitch is scheduled for an 8:10 PM (Eastern) start time and the game will be televised locally.
Betting Odds
Cardinals +108
Royals -118
Over/ Under: 7.5 U -120
This is game 1 of a 3 game series between these interleague foes. The St Louis Cardinals come off a 4 game series with the Mets, in which they split the 4 games. Overall the Cards have struggled of late as they have won just 5 of their last 12 games, But still they lead the NL Central by 4 games over the Chicago Cubs. The Kansas city Royals come into this game having won 5 of their last 6 games and they lead the AL Central by 2 games over the Detroit Tigers with a 26-14 record, while at home they are 15-6.
St Louis ranks 10th in scoring (4.41 rpg), 5th in hitting (.266) and 21st in homers (34), while on the mound they are 1st in ERA (2.79) and 10th in WHIP (1.24). The Cards are 20-6 in their last 26 after scoring 2 runs or less in their previous game and 25-8 in their last 33 games in Kansas City, but just 1-6 in Lynn's last 7 road starts.
The Royals rank 2nd in scoring (5.05 rpg), 1st in hitting (.288) and 25th in homers (29) while on the mound they are 3rd in ERA (3.24) and 6th in WHIP (1.18). Kansas City has gone 11-2 in their last 13 interleague games as a favorite of -110 to -150 and 16-5 in their last 21 games as a home favorite, plus 37-14 in their last 51 during game 1 of a series.
Getting the ball for St Louis tonight will be Lance Lynn, who is 3-3 with a 2.96 ERA in 8 starts this year, while on the road he has gone 1-2 with a 3.09 ERA in 4 starts. He has faced the Royals twice in his career and has 2 no-decision with a 5.84 ERA in the two starts.
Getting the ball for the Royals tonight will be Chris Young, who is 3-0 with an 0.94 ERA in 9 games (3 starts) this year. In his 3 starts he is 2-0 with an 0.54 ERA. Chris is 0-3 with a 3.65 ERA in 5 career starts vs the Cardinals.
Pick: I will be look at the Royals in this game. Chris Young has been tough this year as both a starter and a reliever and the St Louis offense has not been all that good. They did have two good offensive games vs the Mets, but also put up just 1 total run in the other two games. Hard to see the Cards getting much off Chris Young, who has an 0.54 ERA in his 3 starts this year. the Cards are just 1-6 in Lynn's last 7 starts on the road and I see him struggling here vs the 2nd ranked scoring offense in the league. I look for Kansas city to take game 1 of this important interleague series.
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