Royals vs. Guardians Betting Odds, Pitching Matchup – September 4, 2024

Two of the league’s top hitters will meet Wednesday when the Kansas City Royals (75-65) and Cleveland Guardians (80-59) take to the field at 7:40 p.m. ET, live on BSKC. Bobby Witt Jr. is batting .340 for the Royals (-140 favorites on the moneyline) while Steven Kwan leads the underdog Guardians (+119) with a .294 average. Seth Lugo will get the ball for Kansas City while Cleveland will counter with Ben Lively.

Check out our betting preview for this matchup, and find all of our expert MLB picks, too!

Royals vs. Guardians Betting Lines

• Favorite: Royals (-140)
• Underdog: Guardians (+119)
• Over/under: 8.5

Royals vs. Guardians Betting Insights

• The Royals have won in 42, or 64.6%, of the 65 contests they have been named as odds-on favorites in this year.
• This season Kansas City has come away with a win 24 times in 33 chances when named as a favorite of at least -140 on the moneyline.
• The Royals have an implied victory probability of 58.3% according to the moneyline set by sportsbooks for this matchup.
• The Guardians are 23-27 in games they were listed as the moneyline underdog (winning 46% of those games).
• When it has played as a moneyline underdog with odds of +119 or longer, Cleveland has a 10-9 record (winning 52.6% of its games).
• The Guardians have an implied moneyline win probability of 45.7% in this matchup.

Royals vs. Guardians Hitting Leaders

• Witt leads Kansas City in batting average (.340), home runs (30) and runs batted in (97) this season.
• Witt ranks 11th in Major League Baseball in homers, and seventh in RBI.
• Salvador Perez has collected 139 hits this season and has an OBP of .335. He’s slugging .472 on the year.
• Jose Ramirez has accumulated a team-high 34 home runs and 105 runs batted in.
• Among all hitters in the majors, Ramirez ranks sixth in homers and second in RBI.
• Josh Naylor has 23 doubles, 29 home runs and 52 walks while hitting .245.

Royals vs. Guardians Pitching Rankings

• The Royals strike out 8.2 batters per nine innings as a pitching staff, 24th in MLB.
• Royals pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.96 this year, which ranks 12th in MLB.
• The Royals rank 18th in MLB with a combined 1.273 WHIP this season.
• The Guardians pitching staff ranks 10th in the majors with a collective 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
• Cleveland has the seventh-ranked team ERA among all MLB pitching staffs (3.81).
• The Guardians have the fifth-lowest WHIP in MLB (1.216).