Charlie Cummings takes you through his preview, prediction and pick for Thursday’s game between the Rangers and Royals.
In the dog days of summer, you don’t want to be in two places: Kansas City and outside the MLB playoff race. That’s where the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals find themselves going into Thursday’s game.
Both teams are down, but not out, of the AL Wild Card race. Kansas City is the first team behind the field, with the Rangers a few games back of them. They’re here for a reason; both squads have fundamental flaws and lack one area of the game they can hang their hat on. But nobody asks how; they ask if you got there. A hot August and September run could see both teams challenge the Mariners, Red Sox, or Yankees for their spot if one of those teams falters. This series goes a long way towards positioning one of these squads for an upset down the stretch.
The Royals are -121 moneyline favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook. The run total is set at nine runs. Let’s dig into a preview, prediction, and pick for this Rangers vs. Royals game.
Rangers vs. Royals prediction, preview
Gone are the days when auto-fading Patrick Corbin was the easiest baseball bet. His Faustian bargain for the 2019 World Series with the Nationals led to five horrendous years from 2020-2024, where Corbin had a 5.62 ERA and led the league in total earned runs three times. Now he’s in Texas for redemption and finding some degree of success.
There are no awards for a 4.45 ERA, but he’s been eating up some innings as a passable back-end starter. He does it uniquely, with his slider getting the highest share of his arsenal. Corbin is getting swings and misses and limiting hard contact, but he’s no more than a veteran fifth starter at this point.
Speaking of struggling veterans, Michael Lorenzen is on the mound for the Royals. He was a great acquisition at the 2024 trade deadline from these same Rangers, only to struggle during this 2025 season. Not what he had in mind before hitting free agency at 34 years old.
Lorenzen also has an unorthodox method of pitching. The reliever-turned-starter throws seven different pitches at least 7% of the time, all between 83 and 94 miles per hour. He’s stayed away from disaster by keeping hitters guessing, but he looks like an end-of-the-rotation option, and nothing more.
Yet despite this uninspiring pitching matchup, these offenses are rough. They’ve been in the bottom 10 for most of the season, and with plenty of time in the bottom five for both. I’m not counting on them to capitalize on these subpar veterans, but rather a lower-scoring affair to be the outcome.
Best Bet: Under 9 Total Runs (-112)
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source dknetwork.draftkings.com ’
