Royals vs. Twins, 8:10 ET This has been the most frustrating baseball season that I've had since writing for Outkick. Each year, baseball has been one of my best sports. However, this season, I haven't been able to get on a roll like I normally do. I've had some mini stretches, but there hasn't been a super dominant month. Looking at my numbers, my multi-unit plays have been very good, and I've won the majority of the plus money plays that I've put out. Let's see if we can find another option in this game between the Royals and the Twins. The Royals are under .500, but just by a game. That's a good improvement for the club that has struggled much of the season. They didn't really do much at the trade deadline, opting to not really trade away talent or even acquire anything. The team might just be looking at this as a down year and hoping to find the postseason again next year. They made it last season, and they clearly are not terrible this year. They were rumored to be shopping their starter for today's contest, but they opted to give Seth Lugo a contract extension, and I personally think he was very deserving. Lugo is 8-5 for the season with a 3.06 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. Over the past few years, he has been one of my most profitable starters. He isn't a big strikeout pitcher, he just pounds the zone and the team is able to field well behind him. The biggest concern that I have this season is that Lugo seems to be increasing his walks in some games. He has walked four batters in each of his past two games. Lugo has only started one game against the Twins this season, going 5.2 innings allowing five hits, and two earned runs. He also had three walks and six strikeouts in that game. Overall, the Twins are hitting .243 against him. The Twins made a very clear decision at the trade deadline. They traded away something like 10 players on their big league roster. I think it makes a ton of sense. Minnesota has been a decent, but not great, team for quite a few years now. Even when they did make the playoffs, the Twins were very unsuccessful. They invested into their roster by trying to add guys like Carlos Correa who they ended up trading back to the Astros. Byron Buxton is still on the roster, one of the players who probably would've generated interest. I'm guessing they probably got a lot of calls on him and today's starter, Joe Ryan, but couldn't find a deal that was enticing enough. Ryan has a 10-5 record with a 2.83 ERA, and a 0.93 WHIP. Ryan has been fantastic this season with top-15 numbers in each of the major four categories for pitching. He is third overall in WHIP and likely will be in the conversation for the Cy Young (though he won't win it). Ryan has been worse at home than on the road. He's been solid in two of the past three games - quality starts - but he did allow four earned runs over five innings against the Nationals. At the beginning of the year this would've been a marquee matchup. But, due to the Tigers playing so well, and the Twins and Royals both underperforming, this matchup isn't quite as exciting. However, I still think it should be a decent enough matchup. In this matchup I think we get some value on the Royals, but the line has moved significantly towards the Twins. Instead, I think we should take the under 8.5 for the game. Both starters are good enough to hold the other team to a limited amount of runs. For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024