Kansas City Royals vs Baltimore Orioles Free MLB Pick, 8–2–2017
Free Moneyline Prediction by Stevie March of Sports Picks Forum
Kansas City Royals vs Baltimore Orioles Free Moneyline Prediction
MLB: Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Odds: Royals -110 | Orioles -110 | 10
MLB Baseball Pick by Stevie March
Last 30: 51 Wins — 27 Losses: 65%
Unit Gain/Loss: +7111 Units
The Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals take the field today for the finale of their three game series. Baltimore won Game 1, 2–1 and Game 2, 7–2.
Pitching Probables: Jason Vargas (13–4, 3.00 ERA) for the Royals vs Jeremy Hellickson (0–0, 0.00) for the Orioles.
Jason Vargas has pitched outstanding this season as he takes the mound for his 21st start, looking for his 14th victory. In Vargas’ last outing, he held the Red Sox to 1 ER in 6 strong innings to notch his 13th victory. The Royals are 15–5 over Vargas’ twenty starts this season.
Kansas City is beginning to make a post season push and prior to the Orioles series, the Royals had won 7 of 8. The Royals are now just 2.0 games behind Cleveland for the AL Central lead and they are 2nd in the AL Wildcard standings.
Jeremy Hellickson will make his 1st start for the Orioles after getting traded from Phillies. Hellickson was (6–5, 4.73 ERA) for the Phillies this season. Hellickson played for Tampa Bay for 5 seasons and he has pitched vs the Royals in the past going (2–2, 4.85 ERA) in 8 career starts. The Orioles picked up Hellickson before the trade deadline due to their inconsistent pitching all season, recording a weak 5.07 team ERA, placing them 29th in the Major Leagues.
Baltimore is only 3.5 games out in the AL Wildcard but they need to keep winning with one of the worst pitching rotations in baseball and an offense that is middle of the pack and not quite the offense they had in seasons past. Hellickson’s numbers don’t tell the complete story considering he pitched on the worst team in baseball. However, I don’t think he is the starting pitcher that puts the Orioles in a Wildcard spot. He is a solid back end of the rotation pitcher but tonight he’ll need to pitch like an ace and that’s not him.
The Royals, however, have Vargas on the mound which is their ace. Vargas has been tremendous this season and an ace’s job is to end the losing streak. The Royals are 5–0 in Vargas’ last 5 road starts, 12–2 in Vargas’ last 14 starts against a team with a losing record and 20–6 in Vargas’ last 26 starts overall. Despite losing the last two games, I like the Royals in this matchup with Vargas on the mound.
Royals vs Orioles Prediction: Kansas City Royals -110
