MLB Baseball Betting: Kansas City Royals at Toronto Blue Jays

The AL East is starting to get interesting. The first place Baltimore Orioles are slumping and have lost four straight games. The Boston Red Sox are in second place just three games back of the Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays are a half game behind the Red Sox. The Jays had a decent weekend splitting four games against the previously red hot Cleveland Indians ending their 14 game winning streak in the process. The Kansas City Royals, meanwhile, are 5-5 in their last ten games and mired in the middle of the pack in the AL Central. The Cleveland Indians still lead the division by 5.5 games over the Detroit Tigers and six games over the Royals. That means that the Royals are 1/2 games back of the Tigers. Kansas City is also 1 1/2 games ahead of the fourth place Chicago White Sox who have won six of ten. Minnesota is a non-entity in the Al Central a full 22 games out first place.

Kansas City will start Edinson Volquez who had a great year last year but has struggled this season. Kansas City has won 10 of his 17 starts but Volquez hasn’t pitched well. He’s got a 4.89 ERA overall, a 5.90 ERA on the road and a brutal 10.29 ERA in his last three starts. He is coming off a very solid start on June 29 at St. Louis where he went 6 2/3 innings allowing 6 hits and 0 earned runs. Before that, he didn’t make it out of the first inning in a 13-4 loss against Houston where he allowed 11 earned runs. Before that, the Royals pummelled the Detroit Tigers 16-5 and that’s a tough game to judge since Volquez just needed to get the ball over the plate and didn’t *have* to dominate.

The Blue Jays will counter with right hander Aaron Sanchez. The Jays have won 10 of 16 when Sanchez starts including 4 of 6 at home. They’re 2-1 in his last two starts. Sanchez has a 3.16 ERA overall, a 4.79 ERA at home and a 2.25 ERA in his last three games. The Royals are 16-26 -8.4 units on the road this year and have averaged just 3.3 runs per game. The Jays have pounded right handed starters this year averaging 5.2 runs per game.

BET TORONTO BLUE JAYS -180 OVER KANSAS CITY ROYALS