Keagan Smith takes you through his preview, prediction, and pick for Monday’s matchup between the Royals and Nationals.
Today’s MLB slate includes 11 contests across the schedule. At 7:40 p.m. EST, the Kansas City Royals (58-60) host the Washington Nationals (47-70) at Kauffman Stadium. This interleague duel features a couple of stars in Bobby Witt Jr. and James Wood, so we’re getting those betting cards ready for the action.
Here’s a Royals vs. Nationals prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for Monday night.
Royals vs. Nationals prediction, preview
The Royals are just a hair below the .500 mark overall this season, but they’ve played solid baseball since the All-Star Game with an 11-10 record. Over that span, they rank ninth in scoring with 106 runs, 11th in OPS at .740, and they’re tied for eighth in home runs with 30. It’s a little surprising to see them having this much success at the plate given they rank 21st in batting average at .240 over the sample, but they should probably have picked up an extra win or two since their pitchers rank second in ERA over that same period.
The Nationals aren’t exactly a big-name team either, and they’ve gone just 9-12 since the ASG as their rebuild continues. However, they have a handful of nice hitters in the lineup who project as members of this team for the foreseeable future, so they’re putting building blocks in place for now. They’ve struggled since returning from the break though, ranking 27th with a .671 OPS and 81 runs, the second-fewest of any team. They’re hitting .237 as a team but unlike the Royals, Washington doesn’t have the arms to make up for offensive deficiencies since their ERA sits at 5.29 since the ASG.
Tonight, Bailey Falter (4.14 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 72 SO) pitches for the Royals. It’s the lefty’s second start for his new team after being traded from the Pirates a couple of weeks ago. The Nationals trot out Cade Cavalli (0.00 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, six SO) who’s only made one appearance this season and two in his MLB career. He threw 4.1 innings with three hits allowed and six strikeouts in his lone start back on August 6.
Royals vs. Nationals pick, best bet
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Royals as favorites in Monday’s game with -156 Moneyline odds. The Nationals are listed at +127 on the Moneyline with the run total set at 8.5.
All things considered, Royals -1.5 looks like one of the better picks for tonight’s betting cards. While they’re just a smidge over .500 since the All-Star Game, they’re driving the ball well right now and face an inexperienced starter this evening. While Kansas City sits just 5-5 across their last 10 games, they’re still a more dependable than Washington and they’re generally putting up solid scoring outputs on a nightly basis.
While it’s not the most exciting selection, sometimes it’s easier to just keep things simple. The Royals should win by multiple runs here at home.
Best bet: KC Royals -1.5 (+138)
Click the odds on this bet to tail!
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source dknetwork.draftkings.com ’
