Rays vs. Royals Prediction and Odds for Friday, July 22 (Drew Rasmussen Ready to Roll in K.C.)

The Kansas City Royals play their first game at home following a four-game series that turned a normally innocuous series against the Toronto Blue Jays into national headlines.

Kansas City was found to have 10 players, along with multiple coaches on their roster that were unvaccinated, causing more than 1/3 of their active roster to be unavailable for the series.

Whit Merrifield attempted to explain his rationale, but ended up putting his foot directly in his mouth in the process,

They'll attempt to put the story behind them as they look to start the second half with some fight against the Tampa Bay Rays and pitcher Drew Rasmussen. The Royals as of this writing have yet to name their starter.

Here are the latest consensus odds for Friday night in Kansas City.

Rays vs. Royals Odds, Spread and Total

Run Line:

• Rays: -1.5 (+130)
• Royals: +1.5 (-160)

Moneyline:

• Rays: -123
• Royals: +113

Total:

• 9.0 (OVER -105 | UNDER -115)

Rays vs. Royals Prediction and Pick

The Rays have done a terrific job of keeping Rasmussen in the game just enough to be effective in his 15 starts this year.

His season high in innings is just seven, and he's only gone more than 5-plus innings four times in 15 outings, but the results are very solid: 3.28 ERA with a 3.74 Fielder Independent Pitching (FIP). Turns out there's a reason for it.

Rasmussen has a 2.53 ERA the first time through the order, a 2.60 ERA the second time, and if he faces a lineup a third time, that ERA balloons to 10.50.

Kansas City's lineup ranks sixth-worst in WAR this year, and while three of the four games in Toronto were much more competitive than expected, K.C. still only averaged 2.75 runs/game in the series.

I'll focus my wager on Rasmussen handling the Royals bats, betting the Royals' under to hit at home.

LEAN: Royals F5 UNDER

Follow all of Ben's betting plays in real-time HERE!