St. Louis Cardinals at Kansas City Royals:
The Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals are in the thick of their respective leagues Wild Card hunts and both are in need of a big win in Kansas City on Saturday.
Michael Wacha gets the start for the Royals. He enters having allowed three earned runs or fewer in 13 straight starts, yet he has an ERA of 3.55 this season.
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Wacha has been pitching to quite a bit of contact with 7.3 strikeouts to 2.8 walks per nine innings, posting a 4.03 fielding independent and is backed by a Royals bullpen that has a 4.21 ERA this season, which ranks 20th among the 30
MLB teams.
The Cardinals have had the better bullpen overall this season, entering ninth with a 3.67 ERA, but this shoots up to a 4.00
ERA since July 4, ranking 15th in ERA in this span.
St. Louis looks to Andre Pallante for a good start. Pallante has done a good job of preventing home runs with only 0.7 home runs per nine innings allowed, but on the whole, he is allowing lots of contact with 6.9 strikeouts to 3.4 walks per nine innings with a 4.43 ERA.
At home, the Royals have been one of the top offenses in baseball this season with over 5.2 runs per game at home. They lead the American League and it’s a significant uptick from their 4.3 runs per game on the road.
With Kansas City’s team ERA going from 3.56 ERA on the road to 3.94 at home, a run-scoring environment will set the stage for a Saturday game that will see plenty of scoring and hard hits.
MLB Pick: Cardinals vs. Royals Over 9 runs
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