Under Is The Way To Go In Toronto Vs Kansas City

Blue Jays vs. Royals, 7:40 ET

It can be very remarkable watching how quickly a team or franchise can turn things around in baseball. Football seems to have the same thing - they might not make a ton of changes, but the players all come into a stride at the same time or something and the team becomes successful. In basketball there is a pretty obvious occurrence - a trade, draft pick, etc. - that causes the success. With baseball sometimes hitting and pitching become contagious and the team has success. Tonight we see one of those teams as the Royals, who are off to a nice start, take on the Blue Jays.

The season has been a pretty clear split for the Blue Jays to this point. The first week and a half of the year saw them on the road and struggle quite a bit. They have a 12-10 record right now, but if you break it down by home/road splits, they are 6-3 at home, and 6-7 on the road. I don't know how much of that comes as a result of them playing so many early road games and not being quite ready for the season, vs. how much of it will be an issue the entire year. The offense will need to step up on the road, and could probably stand to improve overall in general. Toronto is averaging just under four runs per game which is a decent result, but it feels like they are leaving a lot of opportunities stranded. The pitching staff has been strong enough with a 4.41 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP, but there is obviously room for improvement there too. Tonight they send out the guy who has been their best starter, Yusei Kikuchi, to try and win a road game for the Blue Jays. On the season he has a 2.08 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP in 21.2 innings. He has posted back-to-back quality starts, ones where he allowed just one earned run over six innings in both games. He only allowed a total of five walks/hits in both games as well. Limiting baserunners is obviously a huge key to the game, and he is doing it effectively. He's been strong against the Royals in the past, holding them to just seven hits in 35 at-bats.  

Kansas City is off to a very nice start, already winning 13 games, something that didn't happen until May 16th last season. That's almost a full month longer than it took this season. The Royals are 13-9 for the season and most of their success has come when they are on their home field. They are 9-4 right now at home and just 4-5 on the road. Luckily for them, they are at home today. They did just lose back-to-back home games to the Orioles, so maybe they will struggle playing against the AL East? The team is hitting almost the exact same as the Blue Jays (.237 for the Royals and .235 for the Blue Jays), but they have 22 more runs than Toronto. The main success that the Royals have had this season is their pitching staff. So far, the club is off to a 3.18 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. Brady Singer is taking the ball today and he has been outstanding. I've liked Singer for a while now and it would be nice if he can finally put together a full campaign. He has a 1.54 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP. He only has two quality starts and has only gone five innings in both of his last two starts, but that might be all we need from him in this one. He's been very good against the Blue Jays in the past with just eight hits allowed in 41 at-bats and only one of them being for extra bases. 

I think these pitchers are both tossing the ball rather well right now and they should shine in this game. The Blue Jays offense can explode at any time, but the way that Singer is throwing, I can't fade him. That would normally mean I'd want to take the opposing team, but Kikuchi is no slouch himself. I think the best idea here is to take the under for the full game and the first five. I'm playing them both, but if you only want to take one, I'd suggest under 4.5 through five innings. 

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