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We’re entering the fourth season of the annual South Point-lined Play of the Day competition, effective July 1.
Starting bankrolls have reset to $10,000, with the maximum bet being to win $1,000 and the minimum wager $300. Ray Brewer won back-to-back titles in the 2015-2016 and 2016-17 seasons, after Taylor Bern prevailed in 2014-2015.
Kansas City Royals minus-110 at at Baltimore Orioles, $1,000 to win $905: Baltimore’s Ubaldo Jimenez is easily one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball. He has a 4-7 record with a 6.93 earned run average, surrendering 23 home runs in 98 innings pitched. Yet, oddsmakers have the matchup this evening with the Royals and starter Danny Duffy as essentially a coin-flip.
Baltimore’s record has dipped to four games under .500 as its playoff hopes are slowly fading away. Kansas City, meanwhile, is 9-1 in its last 10 games and primed for another playoff appearance.
The Royals (55-48) are two games behind the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central standings, and in a good-position to qualify for the postseason as a wild-card team. It just picked up Melky Cabrera from the White Sox to bolster the roster and give players confidence management thinks it can make another deep postseason run. The Royals have many key players with expiring contracts, and earlier in the season when they struggled, was expected to sell off those pieces to contending teams.
Now, they are the contenders.
Duffy has surrendered just three home runs since June 1 and only 11 on the season, and has a 3.56 earned run average. He’s the Royals ace, the one player that pitches deep into games each outing.
My large wager — yes, it’s fake money — indicates my confidence in the Royals.
Current Standings: Granger (4-3, $12,157), Keefer (4-1, $11,095), Grimala (1-1, $10,010), Brewer (3-3, $9,780)
Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21
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