The Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays meet Friday in MLB action at Rogers Centre. The Kansas City Royals look for a win after winning 5 of their last 6 games. The Toronto Blue Jays need a win after losing 10 of their last 13 games.
The Kansas City Royals have scored 13 runs in their last 3 games and 4 or more runs in 5 of their last 8 games. The Royals have won 5 of their last 6 games when scoring 4 or more runs. Andrew Benintendi leads the Royals with 102 hits and 37 RBI, while Bobby Witt Jr. and Whit Merrifield have combined for 165 hits and 82 RBI. Zack Greinke gets the ball, and he is 3-5 with a 4.52 ERA and 39 strikeouts this season. Greinke is 5-4 with a 3.94 ERA and 58 strikeouts in his career against the Blue Jays.
The Toronto Blue Jays have scored 13 runs in their last 3 games and 3 or fewer runs in 8 of their last 11 games. The Blue Jays have lost 9 of their last 10 games when scoring 3 or fewer runs. Bo Bichette leads the Blue Jays with 97 hits and 49 RBI, while Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. have combined for 178 hits and 92 RBI. Alek Manoah gets the ball, and he is 9-4 with a 2.34 ERA and 97 strikeouts this season. Manoah is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 8 strikeouts in his career against the Royals.
The Royals are 1-5 in their last 6 during game 2 of a series and 5-0 in their last 5 Friday games. The Blue Jays are 3-7 in their last 10 during game 2 of a series and 3-10 in their last 13 overall. The under is 11-5 in Royals last 16 road games. The under is 7-3 in Blue Jays last 10 overall. The Royals are 18-44 in the last 62 meetings in Toronto and 2-5 in the last 7 meetings.
The Toronto Blue Jays have a clear pitching edge in this matchup as Greinke has been a big disappointment this season while Manoah has been one of the best pitchers in the AL this season, which includes a 2.21 ERA and .193 allowed batting average at home. The issue is the Blue Jays can’t score runs, so I’m not all that excited for them here, and I’m certainly not laying massive juice. It’s Royals or pass for me here.