Royals vs. Red Sox prediction and odds for Tuesday, Aug. 8 (Avoid Kansas City's bullp

When it rains, it pours. The Kansas City Royals are in the middle of a painful season and things got worse last night when they had to experience being on the wrong end of a walk-off grand slam against the Boston Red Sox.

But, I'm here with good news. I have faith the Royals can get a win tonight but I think we, as bettors, need to avoid their biggest weakness: Their bullpen.

Let's dive into the odds for the game and then I'll break down how I'm going to handle betting on this American League matchup.

You might be surprised to find out that the Royals have actually had the more effective offense over the past two weeks. During that time frame, they're 10th in the Majors in OPS at .783 while the Red Sox have been trending in the wrong direction, ranking just 21st at .703.

Kutter Crawford gets the start for the Red Sox tonight and it's worth noting that he's been terrible when pitching at home. He has a stellar 2.13 ERA on the road this season, but a 6.03 ERA at home. His WHIP also dips from 0.947 on the road to 1.309 at home. That's great news for the Royals.

As I mentioned above, we need to avoid the Royals bullpen. They blew the game for the Royals on Monday night and I won't let that happen to us again. They have the second worst bullpen ERA over the last 30 days at 5.95.

So, we're going to bet on what's called the "1st 5 innings moneyline". This is a bet on just the first five innings of the game. If the Royals are winning at the conclusion of the 5th inning, we win our bet. That way, we can (hopefully) avoid any innings pitched by the bullpen.

At +145, I love this bet for tonight's action.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.