The Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants meet Friday in MLB action from Oracle Park. Kansas City is coming off a series versus the Blue Jays. The Royals lost two of the first three in that set, then on Thursday KC fell by three runs. As for San Francisco, they played the White Sox in their last series. The Giants split the first pair, then in the Thursday rubber match San Francisco took a blowout victory. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.
Kansas City Royals
Kansas City managed a 9-5 win over Toronto on Monday, but then lost the next pair 4-1 and 3-0. On Thursday in the finale the Royals gave up five runs in the first five innings during a 6-3 loss. Starter Jordan Lyles put up 5.2 innings with five earned on eight hits and no walks with nine Ks.
As starter for the Royals on Friday, it’ll be Brad Keller. In his first start this year, Keller took a loss with 4.2 innings, two earned, five hits, four walks and six strikeouts. Keller is 35-50 in 140 career games (106 starts) with a 4.24 ERA.
San Francisco Giants
Over on the San Francisco side, they beat the White Sox 12-3 on Monday but fell 7-3 in game two. In the Thursday rubber match, the Giants notched a whopping 20 team hits in a 16-6 blowout victory. Alex Wood lasted 3.0 innings with one earned on six hits and two walks in the start.
Alex Cobb will take the mound for the Giants on Friday. In his first start of the year Cobb posted 3.2 innings with one earned on four hits and one walk with six Ks. Cobb is 70-68 in his career with a 3.84 ERA over 203 starts.
The Royals are 4-9 in their last 13 interleague games and 4-9 in their last 13 versus the NL West. Kansas City is 2-10 in their last 12 Friday games.
Meanwhile, the Giants are 5-1 in their last six at home and 5-2 in their last seven in game one of a series. San Francisco is 2-7 in their last nine interleague games.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’ll take a stab on the Giants in this one. San Francisco’s offense has been pretty erratic this year, but they’ve got a few solid performances in the bag so far—and they’re coming off a spectacular scoring effort on Thursday. The Giants should get a quality start out of Cobb, despite a few early troubles in his first start of the year against a dangerous Yankees lineup. Keller should be able to keep the clamps down while he’s out there as well, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see a low-scoring affair here. Ultimately I think the Giants prevail at home in the opener, though.