Kansas City Royals at Houston Astros Preview & Picks
Houston are backed to beat Kansas City for the first time this season.
The Royals swept the Astros in April and are in better form, but Hunter Brown gets the nod for the home side here and he has been a dependable starter in 2024.
- Houston pitcher Hunter Brown is 11-7 with a 3.72 ERA
- Hunter Brown has allowed 2 earned runs or fewer in his last 4 starts
- Kansas City starter Brady Singer has allowed at least 4 earned in 3 of his last 4 starts
- The 2 starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 7.10
Head To Head
- Kansas City Royals lead the regular season series 3-0
- Kansas City Royals won 13-3 when the two teams last met on April 11
Kansas City Royals Form
Kansas City head to Houston on the back of a defeat, but in decent form having won 10 of their previous 14 games.
The Royals began this good run with a 4-1 victory in Minnesota that ensured they would not be swept in a three-game series with the Twins.
They then returned home to face the Los Angeles Angels and won 5-3 and 3-0 either side of a 9-5 defeat.
Kansas City took the home opener against Philadelphia too, winning 7-4, but they failed to build on that over the next two meetings with the Phillies, losing 11-2 and 11-3.
The Royals rebounded in Cleveland, winning the first three games of the series with the Guardians, 4-3, 9-4 and 6-1, but they missed out on the sweep as they lost last night's series finale, 7-5.
Houston Astros Form
Houston come into this series having won last night, but they have struggled in recent weeks with six defeats in their last nine games games.
The Astros were red-hot in the first half of August as they won eight straight games, and they then responded to a 5-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox with a three-game winning run.
They cooled off after that though, suffering back-to-back home defeats at the hands of Boston, 6-5 and 4-1.
Houston avoided a third straight defeat with a 6-0 win in Baltimore in the series opener, only to then lose 7-5 and 3-2 to the Orioles.
The Astros did earn a split of that series, winning the finale 6-3, but they were unable to back that up in Philadelphia as they were beaten 3-2 and 5-0, before taking the final game of the series, 10-0.