The Kansas City Royals are 8-1 in their last nine games, pulling to within one game of the AL Central-leading Cleveland Indians. The Royals will try to stay hot on the road as they visit the New York Mets for a two-game series in a rematch of last year's World Series.
Royals vs. Mets 2016 odds: Kansas City looks to stay hot against New York in short road series
The road-underdog Kansas City Royals visit the New York Mets for a two-game series starting this Tuesday night.
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Kansas City is a +167 betting underdog for Tuesday’s series opener at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The Mets are a -177 favorite, sending Noah Syndergaard to the mound against Ian Kennedy.
Over the last few seasons, the Royals have continued to find ways to defy their critics and keep winning games. This year looked like it might be the exception, with a struggling pitching staff and injury woes knocking Alex Gordon out for the last month and Mike Moustakas out for the year. But instead, the Royals have continued to press on and are in the thick of the AL Central race, coming off eight wins in their last nine games, all against division rivals.
The Royals have been an extremely streaky team all season long. Kansas City started the season off with a 12-6 record, followed by streaks of 5-13, 13-3, 0-8 and now 8-1, per the OddsShark MLB Database.
The Mets own the second-best team ERA in all of baseball at 3.21, led by a young core of Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz and Matt Harvey. But on offense, the Mets rank 28th in the majors, averaging a paltry 3.68 runs per game.
New York is 2-6 in its last eight games, including an embarrassing sweep at home against the lowly Atlanta Braves last weekend, mustering up only four runs of offense in three games.
Syndergaard has a sparkling 1.91 ERA this season, and the Mets are 9-4 in his 13 starts this year.
Tuesday night’s total is set at seven runs. The OVER is 4-1 in Kansas City’s last five games.
These two teams split a two-game series in Kansas City at the start of the season with Syndergaard outdueling Chris Young in a 2-0 win. Wednesday’s series finale will pit Kansas City’s Danny Duffy against New York’s Bartolo Colon.
