<\/p>\n
Bryan Armetta offers up a preview, prediction and pick for Wednesday\u2019s MLB game between the Kansas City Royals and the Cincinnati Reds<\/p>\n
On Monday, it was the Reds (31-29) that earned a tenth-inning victory over the Royals (23-38). Cincinnati, despite its solid record, are currently last in the loaded NL Central. It\u2019s a different story for Kansas City, still alive in the wide-open AL Central. Which of these two clubs has the edge going into tonight\u2019s interleague matchup?<\/p>\n
The Reds are favorites (-157)<\/a><\/strong> over the Royals, with the over\/under set at eight runs<\/a><\/strong>. Below, I\u2019ve laid out my preview, prediction, and best bet for Wednesday\u2019s showdown between Kansas City and Cincinnati on DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n In an otherwise disappointing Kansas City season, Stephen Kolek has been a bright spot. Over five starts this season, the right-hander has produced a 3.48 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and 19 strikeouts (5.5 K\/9). Most of his success can be traced back to exceptional control. The 29-year-old ranks within the top 94th percentile among qualified pitchers with a 5.0% walk rate. He\u2019s also done a decent job at limiting hard contact and keeping the ball on the ground. However, Kolek\u2019s biggest weakness is a lack of swing-and-miss stuff. Without the ability to get batters chasing, consistency can be hard to come by.<\/p>\n In many ways, this is a real \u2018something\u2019s gotta give\u2019 matchup. As previously mentioned, Kolek doesn\u2019t generate many whiffs. However, the Reds love flailing at pitches. They\u2019re averaging a National League-worst 9.37 strikeouts per game this season. It\u2019s worth noting that face of the franchise Elly De La Cruz (hamstring) is sidelined tonight. Still, five other Cincinnati regulars have notched a wRC+ above 100 this season. Outfielder JJ Bleday has been carrying this offense, hitting .344 with four homers and seven RBIs over his last eight matchups. The Reds are averaging the seventh-most walks per game this season (3.88).<\/p>\n Pitching has been a major issue for Cincinnati, especially in the bullpen. However, starter Chase Burns has been nothing short of fantastic this season. Through 64.1 innings of work, he\u2019s recorded a 1.96 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 72 strikeouts (10.1 K\/9). A quick look on Savant<\/a> proves the right-hander\u2019s success is no fluke. The 23-year-old is inside the 85th percentile in xERA (2.89), xBA (.201), fastball velocity (98.0 MPH), whiff rate (33.9%) and chase rate (28.9%). Burns has allowed two earned runs or less in each of his last eight appearances.<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear that Cincy\u2019s newest ace is a problem for any offense. That\u2019s especially true for tonight\u2019s opponents. The Royals are averaging an MLB-worst 3.82 runs per game. Other than Bobby Witt Jr. (127 wRC+), quality bats are few and far between on this club. To make matters worse, leadoff man Maikel Garcia (hamstring) is questionable to suit up tonight. Other than Witt Jr., no other Kansas City regular has a wRC+ above 100 this season. As a unit, the Royals have posted a .206 batting average, .281 slugging percentage and .274 wOBA against pitches of 97 MPH or faster this season. That doesn\u2019t inspire much confidence against a fireballer such as Burns.<\/p>\n The absence of De La Cruz isn\u2019t ideal for Cincinnati tonight. However, there\u2019s enough decent bats for this lineup to stay afloat. Kolek, a soft tosser, doesn\u2019t match up particularly well with a group that loves working the count. On the other side, Burns has taken down far more difficult lineups than Kansas City this season. The Reds have the edge in almost every way this evening at Great American Ball Park. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source dknetwork.draftkings.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bryan Armetta offers up a preview, prediction and pick for Wednesday\u2019s MLB game between the Kansas City Royals and the Cincinnati Reds On Monday, it was the Reds (31-29) that earned a tenth-inning victory over the Royals (23-38). Cincinnati, despite its solid record, are currently last in the loaded NL Central. It\u2019s a different story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2444023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2444022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Kansas-City-Royals-vs-Cincinnati-Reds-prediction-pick-for-Wednesday.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2444024,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444022\/revisions\/2444024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2444023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Royals vs. Reds pick, best bet<\/h2>\n
Royals vs. Reds prediction, preview<\/h2>\n
Best Bet: Reds -1.5 (+130)<\/a><\/h3>\n
More MLB Content & Betting Picks<\/h2>\n