MLB Betting Preview: Detroit Tigers vs. Kansas City Royals Odds, Analysis
The Kansas City Royals (69-64) had won 11 straight games Danny Duffy (11-2, 3.01 ERA) started until he got hammered by the Boston Red Sox in his last outing Saturday.
Now the Royals will try to avoid losing two straight with Duffy on the hill when they host the Detroit Tigers (72-61) as -165 home betting favorites (bet $165 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark in a key American League Central matchup starting Friday.
Duffy surrendered seven runs and nine hits—including three homers—to the Red Sox in five innings of an 8-3 loss in his most recent start. He had given up more than three runs only once in his previous 16 starts before that and saw his ERA rise from 2.66.
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But Duffy has yet to suffer a setback at home this season, going a perfect 6-0 with a 3.16 ERA in 18 appearances at Kauffman Stadium, including 11 starts.
The Tigers are three games ahead of Kansas City in the AL Central standings and trail the division-leading Cleveland Indians by 4.5 games heading into the final month of the season. Detroit is coming off a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox and sends the struggling Anibal Sanchez (7-13, 5.92 ERA) to the mound. He's going for just his second win since August 2.
Sanchez last won on the road against the Minnesota Twins on August 23, allowing three runs and six hits in seven innings of an 8-3 victory. However, he followed that up by giving up five runs and eight hits in 5.2 innings of a 5-0 home loss Sunday.
The Royals have dominated the season series this year, winning nine of 13 meetings so far, including three straight and seven of the past nine. Most of the games have been low-scoring affairs recently, according to the Odds Shark MLB Database, with the under going 5-1-1 in the previous seven games between the teams. Before that, the over was on an 11-2 run dating back to August 2015.
The Tigers were just swept at home by Kansas City in a three-game series August 15-17, getting outscored by a 13-3 margin.
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