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Gambling911.com looks at whether the Cleveland Guardians are a good bet this day.
Justin Bieber vs. Kansas City Royals
(June 29, 2023) - This is a borderline decision whether to bet the Guardians or not as they go up against the hapless Kansas City Royals.
First off, the Guardians bludgeoned KC Wednesday night in a game we picked correctly. They beat the Royals 14-1 once the dust settled. Included among the scoring, José Ramírez hit his 5th grand slam.
Ramírez lined a first-pitch cutter from Austin Cox into the left-field bullpen after Cox opened the third by allowing a single and two walks.
“He’s been one of the best hitters in the game for a number of years,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “The grand slam didn’t even seem like that bad of a pitch.”
A win by the Indians on Thursday would be a sweep.
Cleveland was coming in as a -160 favorite overnight against the Royals and that line has since dropped to -148, something that scares us just a bit.
Shane Bieber is 5-5 with a 3.69 ERA. He is coming off of two losses but, on June 11, Bieber arguably had one of his best starts of the season against the Astros. He blanked them for seven innings and struck out nine. He is more than capable of going deep and the Royals offer an excellent opportunity to bounce back.
He's 18 for 75 against the Royals current lineup (.240), giving up 3 home runs, each of those courtesy of Salvador Perez.
Matt Duffy, who is .303 on the season, is the only other Royals batter who has enjoyed solid success against Bieber (4 for 9 with a double and 2 RBIs).
Zack Greinke is 1-8 with a 5.31 ERA for Kansas City.
Greinke was knocked around in a losing effort against the Rays on Friday night, giving up seven runs on nine hits over his 4 2/3 innings of work. He yielded three runs in five-plus innings Monday against the Reds. Greinke hasn't had a win since May 3 and hasn't been able to get beyond the 6th inning in any recent games.
The Guardians career statistics vs. Greinke are 23 of 84 (.274) with no home runs.
We won't be betting this one for the record.
- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
