BEST LINE: Pinnacle +123

Posted at 10:15 AM EST.

1:05 PM EST. At some point the Royals are going to cool off but you would have to go deep into the baseball archives to find the last time a team put up numbers like the Royals just did over a 9-game stretch. Kansas City has scored 67 times over that span while batting a hefty .355. They’ve also gone yard 12 times in their past nine games and it’s interesting to note that the Royals hot streak coincided with the hiring of a new hitting coach (Dale Sveum). Since Sveum took over the duties, the Royals are 13-4 and have 17 jacks after having only 21 bombs through 53 games prior. This team is red-hot, they can’t wait to get back to the park and as long as they’re paying off at the window, we’ll continue to play them.

We’re not going to try and make a case for Jeremy Guthrie over Drew Smyly but if the better pitcher won every game, we’d all be rich. What we know for sure is that Guthrie is pitching for the hottest team in baseball while Detroit’s pitching staff is shell-shocked. The Tigers pen is a mess and Smyly may be left in there longer than he normally would because of that brutal and overtaxed pen. Furthermore, Smyly is not in great form to begin with. He’s had extreme outcomes the entire year with a dominant start/disaster split of 50%/50% after 10 starts. The Tigers have dropped five of the last six games that Smyly has started and his 1.33 WHIP suggests he’s going to get into several jams every game he starts. Smyly has not pitched past the sixth inning in any of his starts this year and he’s certainly up against it here. The Royals are once again much too hot to ignore taking back a price and that’s all there is to it.