MLB Baseball Betting: Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians

The MLB baseball season is winding down and the contending teams are trying to position themselves for postseason play. One such team is the Kansas City Royals who have laid waste to the AL Central as they’ve compiled the best record in the American League. They’ve been in poor form lately losing 7 of their last 10 games but with a 10 game lead over second place Minnesota they can afford to take it easy. Cleveland, meanwhile, is trying to play themselves into a wild card spot. The Indians have won six of ten and are now just five games back of the final wild card berth in the American League.

This is the third game of the early week series between the Royals and Indians and the teams have split the first two contests. This game sets up nicely for the visitors due in large part to the pitching matchup. Kansas City will start lefthander Danny Duffy–admittedly his numbers this season are mediocre at best (ERA of just over 4 in most situational breakdowns) but we’re more interested in the fact that he’s a southpaw. Cleveland will counter with Danny Salazar–he’s been decent for most of the season though his 5.25 L3 ERA isn’t very impressive. Then again, the Tribe won two of those three starts.

And here’s where the pitching matchup comes into play–Cleveland has been horrible against lefthanded pitching this season. The Indians are 20-30 -13.3 units against lefthanders overall this season putting up a full run per game less than their overall average output. In night games at home they’re 4-11 -11.1 units averaging 2.7 runs per game. In other words, despite Duffy’s marginal numbers the Indians could make him look like Sandy Koufax.

On the other side of the field, the Royals have pummeled right handed pitching this season to the tune of 59-33 +21.7 units. Kansas City may have a 10 game advantage in the division but they still need to concern themselves with home field advantage throughout the playoffs with Toronto just 3 games back. The Royals need to play hard the rest of the way to put themselves in the best position going into the playoffs. A win here is a great step.

BET KANSAS CITY ROYALS +125 OVER CLEVELAND INDIANS