{"id":360605,"date":"2025-08-02T09:45:40","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T13:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=360605"},"modified":"2025-08-02T11:42:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T15:42:34","slug":"royals-vs-blue-jays-best-bets-august-2-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/royals-vs-blue-jays-best-bets-august-2-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals vs. Blue Jays best bets Aug. 2: Bobby Witt Jr. should fuel Kansas City&#8217;s offence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/mlb\/max_scherzer\/pitching-stats\">Max Scherzer<\/a> is back on the mound Saturday afternoon for the Toronto Blue Jays, as they host the Kansas City Royals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pregame narrative:<\/strong> KC won last night&#8217;s game, 9-3, marking Toronto&#8217;s fifth loss in six games. The Jays are favourites at Rogers Centre this afternoon in a matchup with a lower-than-usual projected total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out my Blue Jays best bets vs. the Royals for Aug. 2, featuring prop bets on Scherzer and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/mlb\/bobby_witt_jr\/batting-stats\">Bobby Witt Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Blue Jays best bets vs. Royals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best bet: Witt over 0.5 runs (+107)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This price seems too good to be true for one of baseball&#8217;s brightest young stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Witt homered and walked twice vs. the Blue Jays last night, extending a stellar stretch of production that goes back to the beginning of July:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>.302 BA<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>.890 OPS<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>21 runs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1+ runs in 16 of 24 games<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Witt&#8217;s xBA since July 1 is .302, per Baseball Savant, and that directly aligns with his actual batting average. So he hasn&#8217;t been lucking his way into this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His 100th-percentile sprint speed means he&#8217;s always a threat to steal a base. And his 89th-percentile xSLG (.525) means that he&#8217;s got plenty of power to go with all that speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Witt bats in the No. 2 spot of the Royals&#8217; lineup, with three accomplished hitters right behind him: Vinnie Pasquantino, Maikel Garcia and Salvador Perez. All three of those guys have a 119 wRC+ or better since June 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Max Scherzer will throw mostly four-seamers and sliders to right-hitting players, and that&#8217;s a combo that should be fine for Witt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The star shortstop has a .302 xBA and a .574 xSLG against those pitches from righties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key stat:<\/strong> Witt has scored a run in eight of his past 10 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"cacheembed:116537\">Embed: #116537<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"insights\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/sports-hub\/baseball\/mlb?utm_source=insights&amp;utm_medium=text_link&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=sportsbook_mlb\">Full MLB betting markets<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"insights\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/article\/mlb-injury-report?utm_source=insights&amp;utm_medium=text_link&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=injury_reports\">MLB injury report<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"insights\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/mlb\/top-players\/hitting\/OPS-on-base_plus_slugging?utm_source=insights&amp;utm_medium=text_link&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=stats_pages\">MLB stats &amp; standings<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick pick<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Scherzer under 17.5 outs (+135):<\/strong> I faded Scherzer&#8217;s outs total last time (15.5), and he blew it out of the water with a 7.0-inning quality start against a floundering Tigers lineup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This line movement, combined with the price, makes me want to try taking the under again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scherzer has gone under this mark in five of his seven starts, averaging 5.0 IP this season. He&#8217;s had a thumb issue flare up a few times, and though he seems to be managing it fine, there&#8217;s always a risk that it resurfaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, remember that the Tigers were in a massive slump when Scherzer faced them last time out. That&#8217;s not the case with the Royals this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KC is ninth in the majors in team wRC+ over the past 30 days (110), which includes the third-highest SLG (.465).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Toronto&#8217;s bullpen is in solid shape thanks to Thursday&#8217;s off-day (and another off-day coming up on Aug. 7). There are four relievers with multiple rest days entering this matchup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Over 8 runs (-113):<\/strong> Noah Cameron is having a remarkable rookie season for KC, compiling a 2.44 ERA over 14 starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He&#8217;ll face one of his toughest tests of the year on Saturday, though, in a road matchup against a very selective Blue Jays lineup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Against southpaws, Toronto has the best on-base percentage in the league (.339). The Jays also have the lowest K rate (18.0%), the second-highest walk rate (10.0%) and the fourth-highest BA (.261). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I expect the Jays to really make Cameron work. This over is 7-2-1 in Toronto&#8217;s past 10 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Scherzer&#8217;s starts this year, this over is 6-1. It&#8217;s just not a significant total for two offences that are clicking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Blue Jays best bets made at 9:26 a.m. ET on 08\/02\/2025.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Max Scherzer is back on the mound Saturday afternoon for the Toronto Blue Jays, as they host the Kansas City Royals. The pregame narrative: KC won last night&#8217;s game, 9-3, marking Toronto&#8217;s fifth loss in six games. The Jays are favourites at Rogers Centre this afternoon in a matchup with a lower-than-usual projected total. Check [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":360607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-360605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-mlb-betting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blue Jays best bets vs. Royals: Aug. 2 MLB betting | NSB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our Royals vs. Blue Jays best bets for Aug. 2, 2025. 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