T.M. Selection: Minnesota Twins -1.5.

I like the Minnesota Twins runline in this game against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday. The Twins have been really hot lately, winning 6 games in a row before that run ended last night with a home loss to the Tigers. They have still looked really good in all of their games and I think they are going to bounce back in their own ballpark here. The Royals haven't looked great in their games lately, they have lost 6 games in a row and just got swept in B2B series, 1 against the D-Backs and 1 against the Twins. Part of that 6 game run for the Twins included their sweep of the Royals and that was a road series for them too. They are back in their own ballpark for this series and I expect nothing less from them as what they did to the Royals less than a week ago. Daniel Lynch (2-3, 4.01 ERA) is up for the Royals here and he has been struggling in his starts ever since coming into the league last year. He hasn't looked great in his starts lately, with only 1 game where he didn't give up a run and his team hasn't had much success with him in his most recent starts either. I expect him to give up hits and runs in this game with how well the Twins offense has looked lately. Devin Smeltzer (1-0, 1.74 ERA) is up for the Twins here and he hasn't pitched in a lot of games this year, but the 2 games he did pitch in he played really well, only giving up 1 run in each of his starts while going 5+ innings deep into the game. He has also been pretty consistent throughout his career and I expect a good performance from him here against a bad lineup that is missing some key players in it too. I like the Twins runline in this game.

T.M. Prediction: 5-1 Twins.