It has not been a particularly great year for the American League, with altogether too many teams sitting at or below .500. Many of the teams in the Wild Card hunt in the AL would not even be close to getting a sniff at the playoffs in the NL. The Cleveland Indians are one of the teams barely hanging around, and they will hope to keep it close when they finish a 4-game series versus the Royals at home on Thursday night where the Indians are favorites on MLB betting odds to win the match.
An Inside Scoop on the MLB Lines Report on Kansas City Royals vs Cleveland Indians & TV Info
Date: Thursday, September 17, 2015 Time: 7:10PM Venue: Progressive Field Opening Line: Cleveland -135
#Royals 3B Mike Moustakas reached top speed of 18.9 mph on his diving catch Tuesday: http://t.co/ToWH9yNRkP pic.twitter.com/she5rL9xRn
— The Kansas City Star (@KCStar) September 16, 2015
The Cleveland Indians (71-72) are 5 games back of the final Wild Card spot, but must still feel as though they have a legitimate shot given how the other teams in the race are playing at the moment. The team to catch is the Houston Astros, who are in something of a freefall at the moment, but there are also still a couple of ball clubs in the way that the Indians will have to climb in order to get there. One of those teams is the Minnesota Twins, who Cleveland still have to face 7 times before the regular season comes to a close. It’s still a big ask for the Indians right now, but a playoff spot is still not out of the realms of possibility. Corey Kluber (8-13, 3.41 ERA) will be on the mound, and is coming into this one having won each of his last 3 home starts.
The Royals (85-59) really haven’t been very good over the past couple of weeks, but are still able to relax a little given that their lead atop the division is at 10 games. They did not get this series off to a very good start, losing the first one to the Indians, but the second game saw a magnificent pitching effort from Kris Medlen, allowing the Royals to come away with a 2-0 win. As nice as that win was, the Royals have still only managed to score 7 total runs in their past 3 games. Given that the pitching has not been particularly great of late, no-one has to tell them that the bats need to warm up again, and quickly. It was Kansas City who looked like the best hope for the AL in the playoffs, but that hope may now have shifted north of the border to Toronto. Yordano Ventura (11-8, 4.42 ERA) will get the start for the Royals on Thursday.
