Reasonabily Priced Skubal Is The Way To Go Tonight

Tigers vs. Royals, 7:40 ET

Baseball went 1-1 yesterday as I was able to grab a win on the under in the game between the Phillies and the Brewers. Wheeler pitched another gem of a game and Montas really wasn't bad either. In the losing game, it was one of those games that I lost essentially as quickly as it started. Blake Snell pitched a great game and the Giants blew the doors off of the Orioles team. We get a game tonight between another two teams that have had some interesting seasons as the Tigers take on the Royals. 

I'm not sure that anyone realizes just how interesting the American League Central is this season. Specifically, the Tigers have had one of the more interesting campaigns of all teams this year. They jumped out to a hot start behind their pitching staff, but it was fairly short-lived as their hitting just couldn't live up to what the arms were doing. It was like what was happening in Seattle, but worse pitching so it wasn't sustainable over the long haul either. The offense still isn't quite great, but they've catapulted themselves back into the playoff race, going 32-23 since the start of the second half of the season. One guy who has been great all season is Tarik Skubal. He will eventually hoist the Cy Young at the end of the season. For the year, Skubal is 16-4 with a 2.50 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, and 214 strikeouts. All of those numbers are top five in the majors and most are top two. He has only allowed three earned runs this month and just 16 over the past 50 innings he has pitched. The Royals are one of the better teams against him this year. He has faced them three times. In the first game he went seven innings and allowed one earned run. The second game saw him allow four earned runs over five innings. In the final game, he allowed five earned runs to the Royals in 6.1 innings. 

May 27, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Alec Marsh (48) delivers a pitch against the Minnesota Twins during the second inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports

Another team in the AL Central that has put together an interesting campaign is the Royals. This team started the season with low expectations after last year's terrible results. This season, behind Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez, the team is batting .253 and has done just enough with their pitching staff to vault themselves into the playoff picture. They have never been quite able to pick up a lot of ground against the Guardians, but thanks to the Wild Card spots, they should take one of the final places. Tonight, Alec Marsh looks to stop the bleeding for the Royals who have lost three straight games and tries to help them avoid a sweep at the hands of the Tigers. Marsh has been decent for the Royals this year, going 8-8 on the season with a 4.52 ERA, and a 1.23 WHIP. He has made three starts in September, going 15.1 innings and allowing six total earned runs. He has only faced the Tigers once this season, and was able to produce a quality start going six innings and allowing three earned runs. 

Betting against Tarik Skubal is never a great idea, and I'm not sure we have a good reason to do it here other than the fact that the Royals have accounted for about 20% of the runs he has allowed this season. He is a reasonable -135, and I think he takes this game for the Tigers once again. Kansas City needs to get better quickly and lock up the playoff position. They are only up 1.5 games on the Twins and the Tigers are just 1.5 back of the Twins. It will be a very interesting race the last two weeks of the season. For tonight, back the Tigers with Skubal on the hill.

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