The Colorado Rockies will travel to the “City of Fountains” to snap a four-game losing streak as they battle the Kansas City Royals in an interleague matchup. It is time to take an exclusive look at our MLB odds series where our Rockies-Royals prediction and pick will be made.
After surprisingly winning back-to-back series over the Miami Marlins and the New York Mets, the Rockies decided to lay an absolute egg during their time in Phoenix that resulted in getting swept in four games by the Arizona Diamondbacks. To make matters worse, it appeared that Colorado was going to avoid the sweep as they entered Thursday's series finale with a 4-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth before the D-Backs walked it off in the 5-4 win. Now ten games below .500 with a 24-34 record, the Rockies desperately need a solid start from RHP Chase Anderson to get back on the right track before it is too late.
As for the Royals, Kansas City has also endured a rocky start to the 2023 regular season. At the moment, the Royals are 17-39 and are in full-blown rebuild mode as they continue to get their young playmakers some experience so they can equip themselves with success later down the road. Most recently, the Royals lost in a low-scoring affair to the Cardinals in a 2-1 defeat in St. Louis. Getting the starting nod will be Jordan Lyles who is a horrendous 0-9 with a 7.30 ERA.
Here are the Rockies-Royals MLB odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
MLB Odds: Rockies-Royals Odds
Colorado Rockies: +1.5 (-192)
Kansas City Royals: -1.5 (+158)
Over: 9.5 (+100)
Under: 9.5 (-122)
How To Watch Rockies vs. Royals
TV: AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain
Stream: MLB.TV
Time: 8:10 ET/5:10 PT
*Watch MLB games LIVE with fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Why The Rockies Could Cover The Spread
At first glance, the Colorado R0ckies enter this weekend's slate in Kansas City with a record of 27-31 against the spread but are at least coming off a cover of the Diamondbacks on Thursday despite the loss. However, the Rockies are playing some bad baseball currently, and something drastically needs to change in order to string together a solid performance on the road versus the Royals.
To begin, there is no question that Colorado needs to find consistency at the plate as the road team in this one. Throughout Colorado's franchise history, the Rockies often have struggled to score runs away from Coors Field. Overall, they do happen to possess the seventh-highest batting average at .261, but they only generated ten runs in four games against Arizona as they ultimately ended up getting swept. Clearly, jumping off to a hot start in the early frames of this one will be critical in Colorado's pursuit of covering the spread.
Similarly to the Royal's recipe for success later this evening, it will turn out to be the Colorado Rockies pitching staff that will be tasked in holding Kansas City at bay. As a whole, this is a unit that has scuffled in a large way as their continued swelling 5.25 ERA is the second-worst mark in all of baseball. Whether it's walking batters at an absurd rate, hanging extremely hittable pitches with two strikes in the count, or simply allowing far too many long balls, the Rockies obviously need to tighten the screws in a big way to take care of business on the road.
Why The Royals Could Cover The Spread
Right off the bat, the biggest advantage that the Kansas City Royals hold over the Rockies is the fact that they have had a rare two days off. Believe it or not, the Royals did not play a game on Wednesday or Thursday as they should be extremely well-rested to give the Rockies their all.
In addition, while the arms and bats will be far from fatigued, the best part of Kansas City's game comes in the form of their 2015 World Series champion catcher in Salvador Perez. While KC's overall statistics tend to suffer at the plate and from the mound, it has been Perez who has seen a resurgence in his game as he leads the club with a .284 batting average, 12 home runs, and 32 runs-batted-in. Even more so, the 33-year-old backstop has recorded multi-hit performances in three of his last five games and could make a huge impact on Friday night's game.
Simply put, even a solid outing from Perez will be all for not if Jordan Lyles cannot figure out how to record outs consistently. In shocking fashion, Lyles has only surrendered less than four runs twice all year and has given up a total of 26 runs in his five previous starts. In fact, Lyles is well on track to become the first 20-loss starting in close to two decades. With his starting job on the line, Lyles needs to string together a dominating outing versus his former team in order to get the losing monkey off his back.
Final Rockies-Royals Prediction & Pick
While this may not be the most satisfying matchup on paper, it makes sense to side with the underdog Rockies to cover the spread as they should be able to get after Lyles in a big way.
Final Rockies-Royals Prediction & Pick: Rockies +1.5 (-192)
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