MLB Picks 6/5 – Kansas City Royals @ Miami Marlins

MLB Picks 6/5 – Kansas City Royals @ Miami Marlins

by Thomas Quaynor

The Kansas City Royals (18-41) open a 3-game set on the road against the Miami Marlins (32-28) tonight on FS1.  Kansas City beat the Colorado Rockies 2-0 yesterday to avoid a 3-game sweep at home. Miami is coming off a 3-game sweep of the hapless Oakland A’s over the weekend where they outscored Oakland 23-6 in the three games. Tonight’s starting pitchers are Carlos Hernandez (0-3, 4.76 ERA) for Kansas City and Braxton Garrett (1-2, 4.20 ERA) for Miami.

GAME ODDS

Moneyline: Kansas City +146, Miami – 174

Run Line: +1.5 ( -146), -1.5 (+122)

Run Total: over 8 (-105)  under 8 (-115)

GAME STORYLINES

At 18-41, the Kansas City Royals have the second-worst record in baseball behind the Oakland A’s, they haven’t had a winning record since they won the World Series in 2015. Kansas City has shown some consistency in their losing as they’ve split their 18 wins evenly at home (9-23) and on the road (9-18). 

32-year-old franchise stalwart Salvador Perez is hitting .278 with 12 homers and 33 RBI, he leads the team in all three categories. The 2015 World Series MVP has spent his entire 13-year career in Kansas City and has experienced the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows! 

22-year-old shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is hitting .233 with 10 homers, 27 RBI and 18 stolen bases in his second big-league season.  Last year, he became just the fifth rookie to hit 20 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season. Witt was the number two overall pick in the 2019 MLB draft and has lived up to the billing by quickly establishing himself as an very good player in the majors. 

The Miami Marlins enter tonight’s game as one of the bigger surprises in baseball with a 32-28 mark and sit just 3.5 games behind the first place Atlanta Braves in the National League East. They’ve won 7 of their last 9 games which include two 3-game sweeps of Oakland and the Los Angeles Angels. The organization has not had a winning full season (they had a winning record in the COVID-shortened 2020 season) since 2009 when they were the Florida Marlins. The last time the Marlins made the postseason in a full season was way back in 2003 when they won ‘The Bartman Game’ at Wrigley Field and then stunned the heavily favored New York Yankees to win the World Series. 

Leading the turnaround and offensive surge for Miami is the dynamic duo of designated hitter Jorge Soler and second baseman Luis Arraez. Soler is batting .245 with 17 homers and 36 RBI. The 2021 World Series MVP is having his best season since 2019 when he hit 48 homers and drove in 117 with the Kansas City Royals. He’s also on pace to have his second highest home run total of his career, he hit a combined 27 homers with Kansas City and Atlanta in 2021. 

After going 7-for-9 over his last two games against Oakland, Luis Arraez is now hitting an astounding .392 on the season. Arraez has put himself in the historic .400 hit club discussion as no player has batted over .400 since Ted Williams in 1941. Tony Gwynn (.394) in the strike-shortened 1994 season and George Brett (.390) in 1980 have come the closest to hitting .400. Arraez is the reigning American League batting champ after hitting .316 with Minnesota last year.   

THE PICK

The Marlins are hot and the Royals are almost as bad as Oakland, take Marlins on the run line tonight where you can get good value at +122!!