Keagan Smith takes you through his preview, prediction, and pick for Tuesday’s game between the Royals and Nationals.
The Kansas City Royals (59-60) won the opening game of their three-game series against the Washington Nationals (47-71) last night at Kauffman Stadium. The interleague duel continues with the second tilt tonight as the Nats try to bounce back against a Kansas City squad desperate to get back to the .500 mark as they compete for a Wild Card spot.
Prepare your betting cards with a Royals vs. Nationals prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for Tuesday evening.
Royals vs. Nationals prediction, preview
The Royals now sit 12-10 since the All-Star Game as they keep trying to claw their way back to a .500 winning percentage. They’re just one game shy of that mark after last night’s win, and if the offense keeps performing up to their current standards, they should cross that coveted W/L milestone over the coming days.
Despite struggling to produce at the plate through much of the 2025 campaign, the Royals now rank sixth in scoring since the ASG with 1113 runs in their last 22 outings. They pushed their team OPS to .749, a mark that now sits ninth in all of baseball over that sample while hitting 32 homers, eighth-most of any team as Kyle Isbel and Salvador Perez each added one to the tally yesterday. The Royals picked up 10 hits last night to help their average creep up to .244, which ranks 15th. Of course, their arms are still pretty great with the fourth-best ERA on the season, though they’re likely thankful for the recent run support as they fall to 15th in the stat since the ASG while missing Kris Bubic.
The Nationals continue struggling and fell to 9-13 since the ASG — credit can be given where it’s due though after they tallied nine hits yesterday evening. However, the returns post All-Star aren’t encouraging with a .678 OPS (28th), 85 runs (29th), and a .238 batting average (24th). Washington’s season really ended long ago, though expectations weren’t exactly high to begin with as they keep trekking along in their rebuilding phase.
This evening’s probable pitchers bring a noticeable difference on the stat sheet. Kansas City starts Michael Wacha (3.36 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 98 SO) who doesn’t cut down many batters on strikes but generally gets the job done on the bump. He faces Washington southpaw Mitchell Parker (5.43 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, 81 SO) whose inexperience shows on the box score, especially compared to his opponent.
Royals vs. Nationals pick, best bet
The Royals enter game two of this series as strong -199 Moneyline favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook, leaving the Nationals trailing as +162 underdogs. The run total sits at nine this evening.
Wacha forces tons of soft contact with a 90th-percentile average exit velocity of 87.2 mph and a 92nd-percentile hard-hit percentage. While he doesn’t keep hits on the ground, he produces plenty of fly balls and popups and ranks in the 96th percentile for pitching run value. He also doesn’t walk many batters and should have a decent outing against a Nationals lineup that’s truly in the midst of a slump at the plate right now.
On the other hand, Parker’s savant profile shows a lot of low scores in the blue, including grades in the 10th percentile or lower in pitching run value, xERA, xBA, average exit velo, strikeout percentage and hard-hit percentage. Earlier in the season, I probably would’ve felt uncomfortable taking the Royals run line. That’s not the case on Tuesday given their recent form and how poor Parker’s metrics look. This bet cashed last night, so let’s run it back once more.
Best bet: KC Royals -1.5 (+105)
Click the odds on this bet to tail!
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source dknetwork.draftkings.com ’
