First pitch: Thursday, 7:15 p.m. ET
Line: Kansas City +130, St. Louis -140, Total: 8.5

Both the Royals and the Cardinals will be hoping to improve their chances of making the postseason with a victory on Thursday.

Kansas City has been one of the more inconsistent teams this season, as the Royals seem to always counter a nice winning streak with an equally long losing streak. The Royals are currently four games behind the Indians in the AL Central, but they’re only one game behind the Mariners for the second wild card spot in the American League. They can easily make the postseason this year, but they need to start winning games more consistently. As for the Cardinals, their only chance of making the playoffs is by winning the NL Central. That is also very possible for St. Louis, as the team is only 1.5 games behind the struggling Cubs. Expect both of the teams in this series to play with a ton of intensity. The starters in this Thursday night game are set to be RHP Jason Hammel (5-9, 4.73 ERA, 96 K) for Kansas City and RHP Lance Lynn (10-6, 3.12 ERA, 114 K) for St. Louis. One trend that stands out when looking at this one is the fact that the Royals are 30-22 against the money line when playing against a team with a winning record this season. They play up to their competition and will be hoping to earn another victory here.

The Royals are trying to get back to the postseason, but they really need to make sure they finish off this series strong. Jason Hammel will be on the mound for Kansas City in this one and Hammel is coming off of six solid starts in a row. Hammel has allowed three or fewer earned runs in six straight games and the Royals can’t expect much more than that out of the righty. If he can put in a quality start on Thursday then they should be ecstatic. On offense, the Royals will need both 1B Eric Hosmer (.314 BA, 18 HR, 61 RBI) and OF Lorenzo Cain (.287 BA, 12 HR, 36 RBI) to come through in this game. Both guys have been good this season, but Hosmer is actually in the middle of a career year right now. He has never hit better than .302, so it would be huge for him to stay where he is now. As for Cain, his career average is .287 and he is at that number this season. Cain has, however, gotten his average up from .274 to .287 over the past 10 games. He is really seeing the ball well.

The Cardinals are hoping to win their eighth in 11 games on Thursday, and they definitely have the edge on the mound in this one. Lynn has been brilliant for St. Louis this season, and he is coming into this one after having allowed two or fewer earned runs in each of his past seven games. If he can turn in another performance like that then the Cardinals would have to feel very confident in their ability to win this one. On offense, 1B Matt Carpenter (.253 BA, 15 HR, 55 RBI) is a guy that really has it going right now. Over the past four games. Carpenter is 6-for-13 with two doubles, a homer, and seven RBI. If he can keep it up then that would be big for this St. Louis team. Another guy that needs to be mentioned here is OF Jose Martinez (.294, 9 HR, 26 RBI). The 29-year-old has been a revelation for the Cardinals this season, and he has three multi-hit games and two homers over the past four contests. The team is hoping he can keep it going moving forward.