MLB Baseball BETTING PREVIEW - Kansas City Royals @ Minnesota Twins

MLB Baseball

2025-08-09 - Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins

A Sports Betting Preview by FirstDown

Kansas City Royals @ Minnesota Twins
United States : MLB Baseball
Saturday 9th August 2025 - Scheduled 7:10pm
12:10am (British Time)

---

Preview

The Cleveland Guardians have forged ahead in the bid to try and track down American League Central leaders the Detroit Tigers, while the Kansas City Royals (57-59) and Minnesota Twins (55-60) are struggling to keep pace with those chasing Wild Card spots. It is the Twins who have taken the opener of this series too and the pressure is on the Kansas City Royals to try and bounce back and move back up to 0.500 for the season by the end of the weekend.

The two teams are in contrasting form heading into the Saturday game- the Royals have lost four of the last six, while the Twins have won four of the last five, including the last three in a row.

Minnesota will be hoping the momentum picked up by the batting lineup can help starting pitcher Bailey Ober break out of a slump in form. He has a 4-6 record and 5.38 ERA in eighteen starts for the Twins this season, and that latter number is significantly down from the first four years in the Major League.

It had been going pretty smoothly for Bailey Ober who had followed a very tough opening start of the season to put together a 4-0 record and 2.43 ERA in the next eleven starts. That took him through to the end of May, but June proved to be a really horrible month as Ober finished up with a 0-5 record and 9.00 ERA in five starts made before being rested through July.

The return did not go to plan after Bailey Ober was knocked around for four runs in 5 Innings thrown in his opening start of the month, although he did not factor into the decision in that outing.

Earlier this season Bailey Ober contained the Kansas City Royals and held them to a single run in almost 7 completed Innings. In a previous start, Ober again held the Royals to a single run through 6 Innings thrown, but he did not factor into either decision and the Twins actually lost both games despite those strong performances.

The Royals will counter by giving the ball to Noah Cameron who has a 5-5 record and 2.68 ERA in fifteen starts made in his rookie season in the big Leagues.

He has allowed four runs in two of his last six starts and inconsistency has to be expected from a rookie, but Noah Cameron continues to produce strong outings around those setbacks. That is a real testament to the character and confidence that Cameron is playing with and he will believe he can bounce back from what was a difficult opening start in August.

This will be the second time Noah Cameron has thrown against the Minnesota Twins and he had contained the batting lineup to a single run into the 7th Inning in the first. However, much like Bailey Ober, not only did Noah Cameron not factor into the decision, but the Royals ended up losing.

With Minnesota taking the opener of this series, the season series is now split with four wins each.

Prediction

Playoff hopes are going to begin to fade for both teams barring a big month and so series between the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins have taken on added importance.

Both starting pitchers have had success when facing the Divisional rival in front of them, but the Royals and Twins have had issues with the bullpens.

Bailey Ober has perhaps been struggling a bit more and is only just back from a layoff and that could be a factor in the outcome of this game.

Rookie Noah Cameron did have a tough opener in August, but has shown he can bounce back time and time again this season. He may set a slightly stronger platform from which the Kansas City Royals can level this series ahead of a rubber game on Sunday.

The Pick :

Minnesota Twins 3-5 Kansas City Royals

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

I'll back Kansas City Royals to Win at -120 with EveryGame Sportsbook