Posted at 2:00 PM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle  +108 BET365  +105 Sportsinteraction  +105 888Sport  +105

Kansas City +108 over Toronto

7:40 PM EST. The Royals dropped the opener of this four-game series last night, losing 5-3 in a contest where they outhit the Blue Jays but could not cash in their chances. The Royals will send Michael Wacha to the bump today for his fifth start after he was a tough-luck loser to the White Sox last Wednesday. Wacha gave up two earned runs over six innings in that start, but the Royals could only muster one run for him in the 2-1 loss. That brought Wacha’s record to 1-2, but he has been steady thus far and is very much "what you see is what you get," with his surface ERA of 3.75 being backed by an xERA of 3.23. Wacha also brings a solid 1.04 WHIP into this game, as his walks are down, while his ground ball rate is up. He might not be sexy, but as a pooch, Wacha is worthy of our consideration here.

Kevin Gausman (RHP - TOR) brings the worst xERA (7.73) on the board tonight into his fifth start of the season, and there is little reason to believe that he isn’t either injured or having trouble between the ears when he takes the mound. Gausman notably missed the beginning of the season with an injury that was played off as a minor ailment that he felt early in camp, unrelated to the second-half issues he had last season after he missed a start in July with what was called "left side discomfort". The Blue Jays ace was never the same after that scratch, even though he didn’t hit the IL, as his numbers dropped across the board. He had more walks, fewer strikeouts, and missed fewer bats with his weakest swing-and-miss rate in five seasons.

Here in 2024, as you can imagine from our lead sentence, it has not been pretty for Gausman. He is 0-2 through four starts and has given up 13 earned runs in 14.1 innings. We acknowledge that Gausman had his strongest start of the year against the Yankees last Wednesday, but avoiding one disaster does not make a season, and while he only allowed one earned run, he did give up four hits and walked three in 5.0 innings. Even if Gausman is "back", should he really be favored on the road here in Kansas City?

Sherwood

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