The Milwaukee Brewers (24-42 SU, -16.84 Units) have had a rough go of it all season long, and the first two games of their four-game home-and-home series with the Kansas City Royals (36-25 SU, +9.42 Units) didn't go well.
Now that the series is shifting back to Kauffman Stadium, the task of finding wins is going to be even tougher to overcome.
PITCHING MATCHUP
Live bettors are going to be driven nuts with Jimmy Nelson, Thursday's projected starter for the Brewers.
There have been games where Nelson has been remarkable, and there have been games where he has been terrible. The righty has allowed at least seven runs in two of his last three starts, but the start in the middle resulted in six shutout innings against the Pirates.
What really concerns us about Nelson is the fact that he has thrown too many pitches of late. He hasn't had a start since May 19 in which he has averaged fewer than 16.2 pitches per inning. If that doesn't improve in this one against a very patient Kansas City offense, he'll be in trouble for live betting purposes in all likelihood.
Meanwhile, bettors know what they are getting into with Jeremy Guthrie, KC's starter on Thursday. Guthrie isn't remarkable, and he has no capability to throw seven or eight scoreless innings. There are going to be innings which bite live bettors in the backside, but there will be more zeroes than anything else.
Forget about that 11-run outing against the Yankees from May 25. Guthrie isn't as good as he has been over the course of these last three starts, but if you believe that something like six innings and three runs is good enough to win, Guthrie is your man.
ADVANCED STATS
The Royals have been tremendous offensively, averaging .270 as a team and plating 4.37 runs per game for the season.
What's even better for Kansas City is that the team has been relatively unlucky. A team BABIP of .301 isn't all that great, and the Royals are sure to end up with better than a 5.6 percent walk rate.
Sure, the Royals aren't capable of slugging the ball like some of the other teams in the majors, but they play tremendous station to station baseball and do a great job getting runners home when they are in scoring position.
TALKING BULLPENS
The Kansas City bullpen has come across some tough times of late. The team has allowed six runs in the last two games, more or less spoiling some really good starts by Chris Young and Edinson Volquez to start this series.
That said, there is no doubt that things should once again improve. Greg Holland has been virtually perfect in save situations, and the fact that he was bombed on Monday shouldn't be a huge concern to live bettors.
Instead, we have to remember that Guthrie's job is to get through six innings in this game. If he does that and the bullpen can piece together one really good inning, Wade Davis and Holland are just outstanding. We actually would become more concerned for the Kansas City bullpen if the game on Monday isn't a particularly close one, something that is entirely possible with 3-7 Nelson on the mound.
The baseball betting odds for this game will first be available at BookMaker Sportsbook. BookMaker is going to have multiple betting options available for this baseball matchup. Live wagering during commercials offers and adjusted moneyline, individual inning run totals and next hitter results. Log in, and start gambling during the game now!
BookMaker offers play-by-play betting odds for live sporting events every day! The user-friendly wagering interface on your smartphone provides an easy way to place bets on the go. Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker Sportsbook! The game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Kansas City Royals will start at 8:10 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 18, 2015 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, MO. The matchup will be televised nationally on FOX Sports 1.
