LA Angels (60-56) at Kansas City (70-46)
When: Sunday, August 16th, 2015
Where: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO
Time: 8:05 ET
TV: ESPN Radio: XM 89, 177
The Kansas City Royal’s bats have come alive this weekend, scoring 19 runs in the first three games of their series with Anaheim. The Royals are going for the series win tonight after taking 2 of the first 3 including last night’s 9-4 triumph. Overall, Kansas City has won 7 of their last 10 and now own the second best record in Baseball behind the St. Louis Cardinals. They should be going for the sweep tonight, but their usually reliable bullpen blew a 5-1 8th inning lead on Thursday night. They hold a commanding 12 game lead in the American League Central and should be wrapping up the division by early September.
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Yordano Ventura makes his 19th start this year and the Royals will need more from him come October. He has one of the worst ERA’s by a starting pitcher in all of Baseball at 4.97. He’s had some good outings this year including his last where he shutout the Tigers for 6 innings. Prior to that though, he gave up 11 runs in two games. He faced the Angels early in the season giving up 2 runs in 5.1 innings while striking out 7 in a 9-2 Royals win.
The Angels seem to be going in the opposite direction as far as hitting is concerned. They are hitting a miserable .210 in their last 10 games and have lost 6 of their last 8. Despite that, they are only 2.5 games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West and currently hold a half game lead over Baltimore in the Wild Card standings. Mike Trout only has 9 hits in the last 10 games for Anaheim and Albert Pujols is 1 for his last 12. When those two go slumping, so do the Angels.
This season’s ace has been Hector Santiago. He’ll make his 23rd start and tries to improve on his 7-6 record and 2.87 ERA. He has not been very good lately. In his last 4 starts he’s surrendered 14 runs and 6 home runs, which brings his season total to 19 HR’s allowed. He lost 4-2 to Kansas City in his first start this season on April 10th.
The Royals are rolling right now and their facing a pitcher who is struggling. Kansas City should win this game, but because their pitcher is also struggling, I’m going to take a stab at the over in this game and sit back and root for some offense on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.
Pick: OVER 8 -115
