Royals vs Orioles Prediction, Pick and Preview, September 7 (9/7): MLB

Credit: photo by Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports

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Preview

Tonight the Royals with faceoff against the Orioles in their 2nd game of a 4 game series.  The Royals took a close one lastnight 3-2 in game 1.  Both teams enter this one firmly out of the playoff but will look to stay focused and finish the season on a high note.  The Orioles enter this one losing 7 of their last 10 games but might have an opporunity tonight against a young starter for the Royals.  We have a hitter friendly park in Baltimore and some very friendly hitting weather.  The bats could very well be alive in this one for these weaker offenses.

Pitching matchup

Royals

Jackson Kowar (0-2, 9.82 ERA) will take the mound for the Royals tonight.  Kowar enters this game with a 2.18 WHIP and 6.32 XFIP, both terrible numbers.  He carries a low 16.3% strikeout rate and high 18.6% walk rate. Kovar enters this game with 11 innings under his belt, allowing 12 ER's, walking 8 and striking out 8.  The young right hander has been bad in his limited time with the big league club, walking left handed hitters at a wild 31.6% clip (faced 19 hitters) and allowing hard contact to both sides of the plate. He is coming off his best performance to date after throwing 6 innings of shut out ball against Cleveland.  He will look to build off his last start when he takes on the Orioles tonight.

Orioles

Alexander Wells (1-2, 7.71 ERA) will take the mound for the Orioles at home against the Royals.  He enter's this game with a 1.93 WHIP and 5.91 XFIP.  Wells has a low 16.1% strikeout rate paired with a 9.7% walk rate.  Wells enters this game with a a limited sample, pitching 18.2 innings, allowing 16 ER's, 3 Hr's, 9 BB's, and tallying 15 punch outs.  Wells has been terrible when called upon this year and taking on an average Royals team still might not change that.  He will have his work cut out for him in this matchup with the Royals.

Prediction

We have a situation of two pitchers who have been bad when called upon this season.  Kowar was decent in the minors this year and has atleast showed us something in his last start.  Wells on the other hand has not shown us much of anything and I'll bank on him continuing to struggle.  

PICK: Royals ML (-105)

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