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The Kansas City Royals are one of the few teams in baseball with a worse record at home than on the road this season, and they look to improve that mark on Monday with the Texas Rangers in town.
Martin Perez gets the start for Texas, hoping to continue his renaissance season. He enters play with two earned runs or fewer allowed in 11 of his past 12 starts and a walks per nine rate that has improved greatly.
Texas Rangers (-130, 8.5) vs. Kansas City Royals
In 2018-20, Perez had allowed 3.8 walks per nine innings, but he’s only walking 2.2 per nine this season while surrendering just two home runs in 87 1/3 innings, which gives him the best home runs per nine innings rate among qualifying American League starters.
On the other side, Kris Bubic has a 7.41 ERA this season, which has been even worse at home (7.78 ERA). He’s giving up 6.9 walks per nine innings, and opponents are hitting .295 off of him.
The Royals’ bullpen has the worst ERA among American League teams, while the Rangers are 10th in the league. Also, Kansas City enters having allowed at least five runs in four of their past five games.
The Rangers have a better record on the road than at home, going 17-17 away from Arlington this season, and will improve their record in Perez starts, which stands at 9-1 over his last 10.
The Play: Rangers -130
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