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Carrie Stroup here with your Tigers vs. Royals betting line for September 3, 2015. Sportsbook.ag Line: Detroit +177, Kansas City -210, Total: 9
DETROIT TIGERS (61-71) at KANSAS CITY ROYALS (81-51)
Sportsbook.ag Line: Detroit +177, Kansas City -210, Total: 9
The Royals will be looking to keep up their recent stretch of solid play with a home win over a struggling Tigers team on Thursday.
The Tigers have won only two of their past 12 games, but they have the opportunity to steal this series from the Royals with a win on Thursday. Kansas City, meanwhile, has won eight of its past 11 games and has lost those three games by a combined five runs.
Every single night the Royals can be counted on to keep games close and that’s one of the reasons that nobody will want to be playing them come the postseason. On the season, the Royals are 8-7 overall against the Tigers and 5-4 when playing at home.
They’ll send RHP Edinson Volquez (12-7, 3.32 ERA, 124 K) out to the mound in this game and he’s going to go up against LHP Matt Boyd (1-5, 7.12 ERA, 26 K) for the Tigers. Detroit is 13-5 against the money line in road games after five straight games where it stranded seven or less runners on base over the past two seasons. Kansas City, however, is an impressive 52-23 against the money line as a favorite of -110 or higher this season. The Tigers will be playing this game a relatively full strength, but the Royals could be without OF Lorenzo Cain (Calf), who is listed as day-to-day.
The Tigers will be looking to steal this series from the Royals, but they’re sending Matt Boyd to the mound and he has been miserable for Detroit. In two of his past four starts, Boyd has allowed five earned runs and he has not pitched over 6.0 innings in any of those outings. He will need to find a way to pull it together against the Royals on Thursday. He has not pitched that poorly against Kansas City as a member of the Tigers, though, allowing just four earned runs in 12.1 innings of work.
3B Miguel Cabrera (.359, 17 HR, 67 RBI) is 3-for-7 in his past two games, but he has just two RBI in his past six. The Tigers need him to snap out of it and start producing, as he is one of the best hitters in baseball and is counted on to drive in runs. 2B Ian Kinsler (.305, 10 HR, 65 RBI) is a player to keep an eye on in this one. He has six RBI in the past five contests and three homers in the past 10. Kinsler has also had a ton of success against Volquez in his career, going 5-for-13 with four RBI in their history facing one another.
Edinson Volquez is coming off of a very solid performance, allowing just one earned run in 6.2 innings of work in Tampa Bay. He struck out five batters in that game and has now struck out at least five in each of his past four starts. Volquez did, however, struggle mightily the last time he faced the Tigers. He met them on Aug. 12, allowing five earned runs on eight hits in 7.0 innings of work. He gave up 16 grounders in that game and needs to be much better on Thursday.
The Royals have seen plenty of Boyd this season and DH Kendrys Morales (.288, 17 HR, 94 RBI), 1B Eric Hosmer (.309, 14 HR, 77 RBI) and OF Ben Zobrist (.285, 11 HR, 48 RBI) have all had some success in the matchup. The three of them have combined to go 10-for-17, but Morales’ two RBI are the only ones that the three of them have contributed in total. The Royals must do a better job of hitting with runners in scoring position against him and it will not be easy to do that if OF Lorenzo Cain (.313, 13 HR, 61 RBI) isn’t in the lineup.
