Kansas City Royals at Detroit Tigers
The Kansas City Royals built momentum to begin the week with a sweep of the lowly Chicago White Sox and look to carry that over to Thursday’s series opener on the road against the Detroit Tigers. It makes for an interesting game for today’s MLB pick.
Seth Lugo gets the start on the mound for Kansas City, who has been superb at limiting hard contact all season long with a 2.66 ERA with 0.8 home runs per nine innings allowed but seems to be experiencing some regression.
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Lugo’s fielding independent is 3.33, and with only 7.8 strikeouts per nine innings, he pitches to a lot of contact, a major reason that he has allowed at least five runs in two of his past four starts.
Thursday’s game also features a pair of bullpens that have been at the bottom of the league in ERA since May 1. The Tigers’ 4.59 ERA in this span ranked 26th in the league, and the Royals’ 4.65 ERA ranked 27th.
This puts pressure on Tigers starter Keider Montero, who enters Thursday having allowed at least five runs in each of his past three starts and, overall, owns a 6.38 ERA this season with 2.5 home runs per nine innings allowed.
Neither team has been a massive home run threat this season, with the Royals ranked 20th in home runs per game entering Wednesday and the Tigers 21st, but the Royals are a top-10 offense in run creation, with nearly 4.7 runs per game this season.
The Tigers are coming off a month of July in which they averaged over 4.7 runs per game, so Thursday’s season opener sets up to be a hard-hitting contest.
MLB Pick: Royals vs. Tigers Over 8 Runs
