Corbin Burnes was acquired by Baltimore this past offseason to lead a young but promising pitching staff on a deep run in the 2024 postseason. The burden of being the team’s ace has grown substantially over the course of the season as the Orioles have had to withstand injuries to a handful of the pitchers from that once promising staff. Sidelined with major arm injuries are John Means, Tyler Wells, Kyle Bradish (4th in AL Cy Young voting in 2023), Felix Bautista, and just last week, Grayson Rodriguez.
The Orioles spent much of the regular season wrestling with the Yankees for the best record in the American League but struggled in the final month ultimately finishing the season with a record of 91-71 and the top Wild Card spot.
All the Kansas City Royals (86-76) did this season was join the 2017 Minnesota Twins in the record books as just the 2nd team in MLB history to make the playoffs the year after losing 100 games. Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez lead the Royals into the playoffs for the first time since 2015. The franchise has experienced many a postseason highlight winning the American League pennant 4 times (most recently in 2015) and the World Series in 1985 and 2015.
Tuesday night, the Royals and Orioles square off in Game 1 of their Wild Card series.
Lets dive into the matchup.
We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch first-pitch, projected pitching matchup, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.
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Game details & how to watch Royals vs. Orioles live Tuesday
● Date: Tuesday, October 1, 2024
● Time: 4:08 PM ET
● Site: Oriole Park at Camden Yards
● City: Baltimore, MD
● TV/Streaming: ESPN2
Never miss a second of the action and stay up-to-date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day MLB schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game with every out.
Game odds for Royals vs. Orioles
The latest odds as of Tuesday morning:
● Moneyline: Kansas City Royals (+125), Baltimore Orioles (-150)
● Spread: Royals +1.5 (-190), Orioles -1.5 (+155)
● Total: 6.5
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Playoff History for Kansas City and Baltimore
● Royals: Own an all-time playoff record of 40-34. Won the American League pennant in 1980, 1985, 2014, and 2015. Won the World Series in 1985 and 2015.
● Orioles: Own a record of 54-47 all-time in the playoffs. Did not win a game last year in the postseason. Won the World Series in 1966, 1970, and 1983.
Probable starting pitchers for Kansas City and Baltimore
● Tuesday’s pitching matchup (October 1): Cole Ragans vs. Corbin Burnes
○ Royals: Ragans (11-9, 3.14 ERA) has allowed 65 earned runs and 146 hits while striking out 223 over 186.1 innings
○ Orioles: Burnes (15-9, 2.92 ERA) has allowed 63 earned runs and 165 hits while striking out 181 over 194.1 innings
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Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Royals vs. Orioles
- Royals’ SS Bobby Witt Jr. is making his playoff debut
- Orioles’ SS Gunnar Henderson made his debut a season ago and went 6-12 in a first round loss
- These two teams met in the playoffs ten years ago. Salvador Perez is the only remaining active player from either of those teams. The Rolyals swept that series.
- The Orioles won the season series 4-2 but all six games were played in April. Much has changed with both since then.
If you’re looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports!
Expert picks & predictions for Tuesday’s Royals vs. Orioles game
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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts.
Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.
Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Tuesday’s Kansas City vs. Baltimore game:
- Moneyline: NBC Sports is recommending a play on Baltimore on the Moneyline
- Spread: NBC Sports is recommending a play on the Orioles on the Run Line
- Total runs: NBC Sports is leaning towards a play on the OVER of 6.5 Total Runs
Want even more MLB best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert MLB Predictions page from NBC Sports for money line, spread and total picks for each of the games on today’s calendar!
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- Jay Croucher (@croucherJD)
- Drew Dinsick (@whale_capper)
- Vaughn Dalzell (@VmoneySports)
- Brad Thomas (@MrBradThomas)
