The honeymoon period is over for the Kansas City Royals. The defending AL champions are now in the middle of their first losing skid of the season after dropping back-to-back games to the Minnesota Twins. The Royals will be wary of extending that slide further, especially as they’re set to face Sonny Gray to start a three-game series with the Oakland A’s.
The A’s ace has been excellent in his first couple of starts this season, and could be even deadlier if his explosive offense can spot him a few runs. Read on for our preview of this AL showdown.
And over in the NL, check out our preview of the Rockies vs. Dodgers to fill your Friday with top MLB action.
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Oakland Athletics vs. Kansas City Royals Preview
Where: Kaufmann Stadium, Kansas City
When: Friday, April 17, 8:00 PM ET
Line: Oakland Athletics (-106) at Kansas City Royals (-104); total 7.5 – view all MLB lines
Betting on the Oakland Athletics
It’s been an up-and-down season thus far for the Oakland Athletics, who are 5-5 on the season after taking two out of three games against the Houston Astros. The A’s have one of the most potent offenses around, and have scored eight or more runs four times already. But they can also have games where the offense barely shows up. They’ve been limited to just one run on three occasions.
[sc:MLB240banner ]Oakland’s inconsistent offense is in no way because of Billy Butler, though. Butler, a free agent signing from the Royals, has started his A’s career on fire. He’s hitting a blistering .405, and has hit safely in all 10 games thus far this season.
Butler will look to extend his impressive streak in his first appearance back at his former home, Kaufmann Stadium. Over his last three years as a Royal, Butler had a .826 OPS at home compared to just .763 on the road. Butler also has half of the two home runs the A’s lineup has lifetime over Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie, and six of the 15 RBIs.
The A’s ace Sonny Gray is set to make his third start of the season. Gray has gotten off to a terrific start, with just one earned run in 15.1 innings. Gray also pitched well in two starts against Kansas City last season. He gave up just three earned runs in 14 innings, but he lost both starts due to just two runs worth of support from his offense.
The Kansas City Royals are coming back down to earth after a sizzling start to the season. The Royals have now lost their last two games – both to the Minnesota Twins – since winning their first seven games.
After the offense could only produce one run in a 3-1 loss on Wednesday, the Royals got their worst start of the season from Jason Vargas (four earned runs on 10 hits in just three innings) in Thursday’s 8-5 defeat.
But there’s no reason to panic just yet. The Royals offense has been one of the best in the league, averaging 6.6 runs per game. Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, Salvador Perez and Kendrys Morales have all hit at least two home runs already, and all have an OPS above 1.000.
As good as the Royals lineup has been, though, it’ll have a tough task ahead against Gray. That lineup is just 12-of-57 (.211) against the young right hander.
That’s why the Royals will need a quality start from veteran Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie gave up four runs in seven innings in his first start of the season against the Angels. He doesn’t have much stuff to speak of nowadays, but he’ll battle and put his team in a position to win. Including the playoffs, the Royals have gone 7-3 in the last 10 games Guthrie has started.
Writer’s Prediction
Oakland’s offense ekes out enough runs against Guthrie, while Gray shuts the door on the Royals for a 5-1 A’s win.
