Royals and Rangers Meet in Battle of Struggling AL Teams
Royals vs Rangers Predictions: Kansas City For the Upset
Based on how their 2023 seasons went, the Kansas City Royals have severely outplayed expectations while the Texas Rangers have done the exact opposite. But, with both teams scuffling in recent weeks, they’re an even match right now for a three-game weekend series. Kansas City has established itself as a playoff contender following a 56-win 2023 but has dropped eight of 11 while Texas, after winning the World Series, is a mediocre six games under .500 and is 4-8 in its last 12 games.
If you’re making Royals vs Rangers predictions, Texas is a -155 moneyline favorite and is +140 to cover -1.5 runs on the runline. The total is eight runs.
Kansas City has fallen far behind the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central picture but is still in a good position to at least snag one of the three Wild Card spots. The Royals have lost their last three series and were barely able to eke out a win on Thursday to salvage one game from the lowly Oakland Athletics. The bats have gone cold for Matt Quatraro’s team and while the starting rotation has been great this year, it can’t prop up Kansas City on its own.
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Expert Pick: Subscribe below to get our Premium Insights!Meanwhile, if you’ve taken the Rangers often as one of your MLB picks this season, it’s been a rough campaign. Texas has weathered a lot of injuries, and inconsistent bullpen pitching, to limp to a 34-40 record. They did not have a good week against the Mets, losing two of three at home as they gave up 14 runs on Monday and blew a late lead on Tuesday. The good news for the Rangers is that Max Scherzer should be making his season debut on Saturday afternoon.
Royals vs Rangers 
Records: Kansas City Royals (42-34), Texas Rangers (34-40)
Day/Time:
Location: Globe Life Field, Arlington, TX
Stream: Bally Sports Kansas City
Softer Part of Royals’ Rotation Will Throw
While any Royals vs Rangers predictions should consider how the Kansas City starting rotation has been a top-ten group all season, it’s worth mentioning that aces Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo will not factor in because they pitched on Wednesday and Thursday. The Royals will have Brady Singer, Michael Wacha, and Alec Marsh lined up and while Singer has been great, Wacha has been out since May 31st with a foot fracture and Marsh has a 7.00 ERA in his last five starts.
The Rangers are very fortunate that they’re avoiding the top of the Kansas City rotation and instead are getting the less dominant middle-to-end. That isn’t to say that, for Nos. 3 through 5 in a rotation, Singer, Wacha, and Marsh aren’t pretty good on the whole but they’re not why the Royals are ninth in baseball in rotation ERA or why Kansas City is right in the MLB playoff picture.
Their starters need to come through, though, because Kansas City’s offense has cooled down a bit recently and, outside of superstar Bobby Witt Jr., Salvador Pérez and Vinnie Pasquantino, the Royals just don’t have many bats performing at above a league-average level right now. They have a very top-heavy lineup and while they’re still seventh in runs scored, the recent trend is not looking good from a run production perspective.
Rangers’ Bats Need To Wake Up
The story is pretty similar for the Rangers’ offense which has fallen to 18th in runs scored and is right around 20th in MLB in most other major offensive categories. If you were making Royals vs Rangers predictions at the start of the season, you certainly would not have expected Texas to have that much trouble scoring runs. Like the Royals, the Rangers have a lot of underperformers at the plate with only Corey Seager, Marcus Semian, and Josh Smith posting OPS+ of over 100.
It helps that Nathan Eovaldi — having another great season — gets the start on Friday and that Scherzer is expected to return from back surgery to pitch on Saturday. But Texas should find a way to generate offense from the middle- and bottom-third of its order. Jonah Heim, Nathaniel Lowe, and 2023 ALCS MVP Adolis GarcÃa have to get things going as each was critical for the Rangers’ run to a surprise World Series last season.
Josh Jung and Evan Carter going down with long-term injuries early in 2024 has also hurt the Rangers to be fair but this roster has way too much offensive talent and ability to struggle to push runs across. Looking at the Texas Rangers standings and seeing them 6.5 games out of the third Wild Card is shocking.
Take Kansas City For The Value
Go with the Royals here. Singer and Eovaldi are having similar seasons and while the Rangers are a better team than they’ve shown so far this year, the Royals are better right now, and nabbing them straight-up as +130 underdogs is great value. Plus, while neither team has a good bullpen, Texas’ is among the worst in baseball which gives another edge to Kansas City.
For that reason, consider taking the over eight runs as well at -105.
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