Indians and Royals Alive and Well in Wild Card Chase
With the Tampa Bay Rays suddenly plummeting in the standings, the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals are in the thick of the American League Wild Card race. If the playoffs were starting today, the Rays would travel to play the Oakland A’s in the Wild Card game. But the playoffs do not start today which is good news for several teams, including the Indians and Royals.
Both teams have fallen behind in the A. L. Central race with the Indians 7 games behind and the Royals 7.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers. But in the Wild Card race, the Baltimore Orioles are 1.5 games in back of the Rays and only 2 games behind the A’s. Then the Indians lurk 4 games in back of Tampa Bay and the Royals are 4.5 back.
Right now, the Indians and Royals are heading in different directions. Cleveland has lost seven of their last ten games while the Royals have won seven of ten. Kansas City is an impressive 18-5 since the All-Star Break while the Indians are 12-11 since the Break. Kansas City is actually ahead of Cleveland in the loss column with a 61-54 record while the Indians are 63-55. The Royals are going into a three game series with the Miami Marlins before they go on to play the Tigers in a big five game series. The Royals will need to win against the lowly Marlins or they run the risk of losing a lot of ground this week.
Cleveland has a three game series at the Minnesota Twins before heading out west to face the A’s and the Los Angeles Angels. They managed to win on Sunday, beating the Angels 6-5, snapping a six game losing streak. They will also need some wins over the Twins before going out to face the Wild Card front-runners.
This is a big week for the A.L. Central contenders. If both can have a good week, the Wild Card race and the Central race could both tighten significantly. That would set things up for a very exciting September.
Wade Davis will get the start for the Royals on Monday against Tom Koehler for the Marlins. Neither pitcher has a very good record with Davis at 5-9 and Koehler at 3-7.
BetOnline has the Marlins +1.5 -115 and the Royals -1.5 -105 ATS. Moneyline is Marlins +190 and Royals -205. Over/Under is 8 with over -115 and under -105. We took the Royals -105 and the over -115.
They have the Indians -1.5 +130 and the Twins +1.5 -150 ATS. Moneyline is Indians -124 and Twins +114. Over/Under is 8 with over -115 and under -105. We like the Indians -124 and the under -105.
