Injuries Update for Royals vs Guardians – September 08, 2025

Kansas City Royals

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Cleveland Guardians

As the Cleveland Guardians prepare to host the Kansas City Royals on September 8, 2025, both teams find themselves in the middle of a lackluster season. The Guardians are 72-70, while the Royals sit at 73-70, making this matchup critical for maintaining momentum. In their last outing, the Guardians edged the Royals 2-1, further tightening the race for postseason positioning.

The Guardians will send Slade Cecconi to the mound, who has had a challenging season with a 5-6 record and a below-average ERA of 4.78. After a tumultuous last start where Cecconi allowed 7 earned runs over 5 innings, he’ll be looking to bounce back against a Royals lineup that ranks 24th in MLB offense. While Cecconi projects to allow average earned runs with a troubling average of 5.3 hits surrendered per game, his low strikeout rate may not exploit the Royals’ discipline at the plate.

On the other side, the Royals are slated to start Ryan Bergert, who has a much more favorable ERA of 2.61, albeit with a concerning 4.58 xFIP that suggests some luck may have played a part in his success. Bergert threw well in his last start, giving up only 1 earned run and striking out 6 over 5 innings. However, he is projected to pitch only 4.7 innings, a subpar length against a Guardians lineup that, despite ranking 30th in batting average and 29th in overall offense, can pack a punch if they catch a break.

With a game total set at a low 7.5 runs, both teams are projected to struggle offensively, reflecting their recent performance trends. Betting markets have the Guardians and Royals at a pick, suggesting an unpredictable contest ahead, with the Guardians looking to leverage home-field advantage and hopefully find some offensive spark.

Kansas City Royals Insights

• Ryan Bergert – Over/Under 4.5 Strikeouts (-115/-115)
  Among all starting pitchers, Ryan Bergert’s fastball spin rate of 2405 rpm is in the 77th percentile this year.
  Explain: Spin rate is a key component to fastball success in generating strikeouts and preventing runs.
• Kyle Isbel – Over/Under 0.5 Total Bases (-125/-105)
  Kyle Isbel’s exit velocity on flyballs has dropped off this season; his 90-mph average last year has fallen off to 85.9-mph.
  Explain: Most home runs are flyballs, and the harder those flyballs are hit, the more often they turn into home runs. This is a strong indicator of power.
• Jac Caglianone – Over/Under 0.5 Total Bases (-170/+130)
  In today’s matchup, Jac Caglianone is at a disadvantage facing the league’s 8th-deepest CF center field fences given that he hits his flyballs towards center field at a 40.6% rate (99th percentile).
  Explain: This player’s skill set does not match up particularly well with the park he’s in today, which may lead to worse-than-usual performance.

Cleveland Guardians Insights

• Slade Cecconi will “start” for Cleveland Guardians in today’s game but will fill the role of an opener and may not stay in the game more than a couple framess.
  Explain: Openers have become a common strategy where a relief pitcher is used for the first (and maybe second) inning. This can suppress early run scoring as relievers are generally of a higher quality than non-ace starters.
• Jose Ramirez – Over/Under 1.5 Total Bases (+115/-145)
  Typically, batters like Jose Ramirez who hit a lot of flyballs usually hit worse when facing pitchers who also induce a lot of flyballs such as Ryan Bergert.
  Explain: This mostly has to do with the way the hitter’s swing plane interacts with the pitch trajectory, and it can create diminished performance across all categories and hidden value few are considering.
• The Cleveland Guardians have 3 hitters in their projected offense today with a high (i.e. over 27%) underlying K% (per the leading projection system, THE BAT X) (Nolan Jones, Gabriel Arias, Collin Kayfus).
  Explain: Teams that have multiple high-strikeout hitters will make it much easier for the opposing pitcher to record strikeouts

Betting Trends

• Cleveland Guardians – Over/Under 3.5 Team Total (-125/-105)
  The Cleveland Guardians have hit the Team Total Under in 53 of their last 91 games (+9.35 Units / 9% ROI)
• Kansas City Royals – Over/Under 3.5 Team Total (-130/+100)
  The Kansas City Royals have hit the Team Total Under in 77 of their last 126 games (+23.40 Units / 16% ROI)
• Steven Kwan – Over/Under 1.5 Hits Runs and RBIs (-135/+105)
  Steven Kwan has hit the Hits Runs and RBIs Over in 19 of his last 25 games at home (+10.40 Units / 31% ROI)