The Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles clash Tuesday in Charm City as they swing into the postseason. First pitch in the opener of their best-of-3 AL Wild Card Series at Oriole Park at Camden Yards is slated for 4 p.m. ET (ESPN2). Let’s analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s MLB odds around the Royals vs. Orioles odds and make our expert MLB picks and predictions for the best bets.

Regular-season series: Orioles won 4 of 6 games

Kansas City (86-76) overcame a pair of late-season losing streaks to earn the No. 2 AL Wild Card slot. The Royals sport an average offense but a top-notch pitching-and-defense combo. Kansas City’s 3.98 runs per game allowed ranks 6th in MLB.

Baltimore (91-71) was under-.500 (34-38) over its last 72 games, but did finish September on a strong note. The Orioles swept the Minnesota Twins over the weekend and went 5-1 over their last 6 games. Baltimore is the No. 1 AL Wild Card.

Royals at Orioles projected starters

LHP Cole Ragans vs. RHP Corbin Burnes

Ragans made 32 starts this season, going 11-9 with a 3.14 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 3.2 BB/9 and 10.8 K/9 in 186 1/3 IP.

• Last outing: No-decision, 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 6 K in 1-0 win at Washington Nationals last Tuesday
• Career vs. Orioles: 0-2, 6.75 ERA (10 2/3 IP, 8 ER), 11 H, 6 BB, 14 K in 4 games (2 starts)
• Notched a 1.08 ERA while holding opposing batters to a .515 OPS in 25 September innings
• Making his 1st career postseason appearance

Burnes made 32 starts, going 15-9, with a 2.92 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 2.2 BB/9 and 8.4 K/9 in 194 1/3 IP.

• Last outing: Loss, 5 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 9 K in 10-1 loss at New York Yankees Thursday
• Career vs. Royals: 3-0, 2.15 ERA (29 1/3 IP, 7 ER), 21 H, 6 BB, 32 K in 5 starts
• Owns a 1.29 ERA on the strength of a .550 OPS allowed since Aug. 28
• Has registered a 2.84 ERA across 19 career postseason innings

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Royals at Orioles odds

Provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list of MLB odds. Lines last updated Monday at 9:18 p.m. ET.

• Moneyline: Royals +125 (bet $100 to win $125) | Orioles -150 (bet $150 to win $100)
• Run line (RL)/Against the spread (ATS): Royals +1.5 (-190) | Orioles -1.5 (+155)
• Over/Under (O/U): 7 (O: +100 | U: -120)

Royals at Orioles picks and predictions

Prediction

Orioles 5, Royals 3

Moneyline

PASS: look to the run line for a best-value opportunity.

Run line/Against the spread

The Orioles are 8-2 over their last 10 games while Kansas City is just 4-9 with a .531 OPS over its last 13 games. And the Royals are 1-3 over their last 4 series openers.

Ragans has benefitted from some low batting-average-on-balls-in-play figures of late. Per ESPN, current Baltimore bats own an aggregate .837 OPS against him.

Burnes has a postseason pedigree. Per ESPN, current K.C. bats own an aggregate .595 OPS against him.

Baltimore righting the ship late should give the Orioles a shot of confidence in this October opener.

BACK THE ORIOLES -1.5 (+155).

Over/Under

The Over is 4-2-1 across the last 7 series meetings. The last 5 Baltimore games have seen the Over cash 4 times (4-1).

The pitching matchup here certainly has the potential to make the rested-bullpen opener a pitchers’ duel. But recency bias has the bats not getting quite enough attention (or more likely has the pitchers getting just too much sway).

Consider a partial-unit play on the OVER 7 (+100).

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By Jake Nisse

Published: 21:47 BST, 30 September 2024 | Updated: 21:58 BST, 30 September 2024

The Kansas City Chiefs will likely be looking for receiving reinforcements after the injury to star wideout Rashee Rice – and now we have some clarity as to where that help could come from.

Rice, Patrick Mahomes’ No. 1 option, collided with the quarterback after he threw an interception on Sunday and is feared to have torn his ACL. Coach Andy Reid has already ruled him out for this weekend’s game against the Saints.

His injury comes after new offseason addition Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown was placed on IR following a preseason shoulder injury – which will reportedly rule him out until the playoffs at the earliest.

Now, ESPN’s Adam Schefter has revealed that the Chiefs could target the Browns’ Amari Cooper in a potential trade.

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Cooper is a five-time Pro Bowler but has gotten off to a somewhat slow start within Cleveland’s anemic passing attack.

Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice was carted off the field during Sunday’s game 

Browns WR Amari Cooper, who is a five-time Pro Bowler, has been named as a potential Chiefs trade target by Adam Schefter

He is averaging 37 yards per game (148 total), which would be a career low over a full season.

Nonetheless, the Chiefs badly need some receiving help after Rice left his team’s win over the Chargers on a stretcher, and Cooper certainly has the pedigree to help a Chiefs offense which is averaging a pedestrian 23 points per game thus far.

Cooper, whose contract runs through the end of the season, may not be the only receiver that the Chiefs could call about.

NFL Network’s Peter Schrager also named the Giants’ Jalin Hyatt, Rams’ Cooper Kupp and Bears’ Keenan Allen as names who are ‘worth’ calling about for Chiefs GM Brett Veach.

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Allen and Kupp have dealt with injury problems themselves this season, with the latter not playing since September 15 after a reported high-ankle sprain.

Hyatt is by all accounts healthy but the 2023 third-rounder has been frozen out of the Giants’ offense with Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson being the featured wideouts.

For now, the Chiefs are 4-0, but don’t be surprised if they make a move to pluck Cooper from the 1-3 Browns. 

Another week, another close Kansas City Chiefs victory to help keep the team’s undefeated record intact.

This time around, the back-to-back Super Bowl champs took down a battered Los Angeles Chargers team at SoFi Stadium. After some back-and-forth in the first half, Kansas City ultimately pulled away with a big-time offensive score and the defense shut the door on the home squad. It’s a 4-0 start for the Chiefs, and one that left plenty of room for growth.

With that in mind, let’s point out some of the Chiefs’ biggest winners and losers from the fourth week of the regular season.

Chris Jones, the unquestioned closer of the Kansas City defense, was fantastic on Sunday. Not only did the All-Pro defensive tackle get a sack to kill a Chargers drive late in the first half, but he also had another one late in the game to help bring things home. Jones’s pressure of Herbert to force a throw in the final frame resulted in a turnover on downs. It’s been a great start to the season for the CEO of ‘Sack Nation,’ and having another productive interior rusher like Tershawn Wharton (who had a good game in his own right) next to him surely helps the entire line.

Carson Steele is a perfect example of how life in the NFL comes at you fast. A week ago, the undrafted free agent was coming off an inspiring performance on Sunday Night Football against the Atlanta Falcons and seemed to be the unquestioned top option to replace Isiah Pacheco. This past weekend, he had just two carries on offense and one of them was fumbled. Head coach Andy Reid opted for Kareem Hunt (more on that later) for the rest of the game. Steele also got his wires crossed with quarterback Patrick Mahomes on a play extension in the passing game. Reid says he isn’t down on Steele by any means, but his workload will be worth monitoring.

It isn’t too common for a punter to end up in the “winners” section, but here we are again with Matt Araiza. He had his best game as a pro on Sunday, amassing 200 yards on four punts and landing all of them inside the 20-yard line of Los Angeles. Two of them were inside the 10, putting the home team behind the proverbial eight-ball to start their drives. The ability to flip the field is an important aspect, even in the modern NFL, and Araiza displayed to to near-perfection in the fourth week of the season.

Speaking of the fourth week, that’s how long it took Skyy Moore to get his first target in the passing game this season. He logged a second one later on, although it was more of a throwaway by Mahomes. The one he did get a chance on, however, was a third-down pass that got dropped. If Moore’s role is already in question, not converting on his only real opportunity thus far is not the way to solidify things. The former second-round pick continues to underwhelm in his Chiefs tenure.

With Rashee Rice suffering a knee injury early in Sunday’s game, Kansas City desperately needed other options to step up in the passing game. Luckily for them, Travis Kelce and Xavier Worthy did exactly that. The former looked like himself in the box score for the first time all year, hauling in seven passes for 89 yards. Worthy, the Chiefs’ first-round pick, took advantage of a rare deep ball thrown by Mahomes and caught it for a 54-yard touchdown. The long-term viability of these two should Rice miss serious time is questionable, but they kept the offense afloat during a critical time in Week 4.

Let’s preface this by saying Jawaan Taylor has largely been nothing short of awesome in his second season with the Chiefs. His play isn’t represented by his Week 4 performance. With that said, the veteran right tackle got beat by Bud Dupree for a sack in the first half and committed a pair of false start penalties overall. That, combined with a holding infraction, made for a rough game. The worry scale is still hovering around zero, though, moving forward.

Many expected Hunt to have some sort of duty in the Kansas City backfield, but it’s hard to have envisioned him looking as solid as he did on Sunday. The former third-round pick seemed to have a lot more burst than he did last year with the Cleveland Browns, and he amassed 69 rushing yards against the Chargers’ defense. The Chiefs are happy with what Hunt was able to do on the ground and in the passing game and with Steele struggling, it’s reasonable to anticipate a decent role for Hunt moving forward.

In a very out-of-character start to the season, Mahomes continues to play surprisingly poor football and is even holding the Chiefs’ offense back at times. On Sunday, he overthrew an ugly interception intended for Travis Kelce and accidentally took out Rice on the same play. Mahomes’s overall numbers were pedestrian – 245 yards, a touchdown and a pick – and advanced numbers like EPA per play (-0.08) reflect the same. His pocket presence is all over the place right now. Kansas City can clearly still win with this version of Mahomes, but they’ll surely be hoping for better outings in the future.

Read More: Four Takeaways from the Kansas City Chiefs’ 17-10 Win Over the LA Chargers