<\/p>\n
Bryan Armetta offers up a preview, prediction and pick for Tuesday\u2019s MLB game between the Kansas City Royals and the Washington Nationals.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a brutal 2026 campaign for the Royals (29-44). If Kansas City is going to turn things around, it\u2019ll take a better effort during the month of June. As for the Nationals (38-35), it\u2019s been a breakthrough season. In contention for a postseason spot, Washington\u2019s young, high-octane offense is hoping to clinch a series victory tonight.<\/p>\n
The Nationals are favorites (-144)<\/a><\/strong> over the Royals, with the over\/under set at 8.5 runs<\/a><\/strong>. Below, I\u2019ve laid out my preview, prediction, and best bet for Tuesday\u2019s showdown between Kansas City and Washington on DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Royals have been lackluster at best this season, but they\u2019ve been decent on the mound. That includes tonight\u2019s starter, Michael Wacha. Through 88.0 innings of work this season (14 starts), the right-hander has notched a 3.58 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 69 strikeouts (7.1 K\/9). However, he\u2019s been shaky as of late. The veteran has coughed up 15 earned runs over his last 17.2 frames (7.13 ERA). A bit of negative regression doesn\u2019t come as a major surprise. Wacha ranks inside the 33rd percentile in xBA (.255), fastball velocity (92.9 MPH), whiff rate (22.7%) and strikeout rate (19.4%).<\/p>\n That\u2019s not ideal against most lineups, especially the highest scoring group in baseball. Washington\u2019s offense ranks first in runs (399), fifth in home runs (95) and fourth in slugging (.422). The main catalysts in D.C. are James Wood (168 wRC+) and CJ Abrams (144 wRC+). Together, the duo have combined for 34 homers, 99 RBIs and 23 stolen bases. However, this isn\u2019t a one-man show. The Nationals have gotten contributions from Joey Wiemer (156 wRC+), Curtis Mead (125 wRC+). Keibert Ruiz (118 wRC+) and Daylen Lile (106 wRC+). Everywhere you look in this lineup, there\u2019s a difference maker. A crafty, soft-tossing righty such as Wacha could have a difficult time limiting hard contact tonight.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for the Nats, pitching has been a major issue. With that being said, Foster Griffin has been a pleasant surprise so far. After three seasons abroad in Japan, the 30-year-old has returned to the majors with a vengeance. Through 78.0 innings pitched (14 starts), the southpaw has recorded a 3.46 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 74 strikeouts (8.5 K\/9). Where Griffin has been at his best is limiting free passes (2.4 BB\/9). However, he\u2019s struggled to keep the ball inside of the park (1.7 HR\/9). <\/p>\n Luckily for Washington, the Royals aren\u2019t the most likely group to slug some long balls. They\u2019ve only hit 64 home runs this season, fifth-fewest in the majors. To make matters worse, slugger Vinnie Pasquantino (hand) was recently sent to the injured list. Kansas City has a .679 OPS against left-handed pitching, eighth-lowest in the majors. Other than star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., there isn\u2019t anyone to fear in this lineup. Among KC players with at least 200 plate appearances, only he and Jac Caglianone have put up a wRC+ above 100.<\/p>\n At this point, Washington has been raking for nearly three months. That\u2019s a large enough sample size to buy into this budding offensive juggernaut. On the flip side, Wacha has been losing steam following a terrific month of April. Without elite strikeout stuff, the veteran comes into this one at a disadvantage. Griffin\u2019s biggest weakness, giving up homers, shouldn\u2019t be a major issue against Kansas City\u2019s light-hitting lineup. Back the Nationals at home tonight.<\/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 Tuesday\u2019s MLB game between the Kansas City Royals and the Washington Nationals. It\u2019s been a brutal 2026 campaign for the Royals (29-44). If Kansas City is going to turn things around, it\u2019ll take a better effort during the month of June. As for the Nationals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2462773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":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-2462772","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-Washington-Nationals-prediction-pick-for-Tuesday.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462772","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=2462772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462774,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462772\/revisions\/2462774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2462773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2462772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2462772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2462772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Royals vs. Nationals pick, best bet<\/h2>\n
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Royals vs. Nationals prediction, preview<\/h2>\n
Best Bet: Nationals ML (-144)<\/a><\/h3>\n
More MLB Content & Betting Picks<\/h2>\n