#975/976 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 9.5 Runs – Kansas City Royals @ St Louis Cardinals, Sunday at 2:15 PM ET – The Royals have been trending under for many weeks now. However, if there was a perfect spot for Kansas City to snap that trending in a strong way this might very well be it. The Cardinals are sending Jon Lester to the mound. The veteran lefty has made only one start since coming to the Cards from the Nats but it looked very much like his recent starts with the Nationals. The fact is that Lester is in a major slump right now and can't seem to break his rough patch of poor form. The odds are heavily stacked against a strong start from Lester here as he has been roughed up in 6 of his last 7 outings. The one start was impressive but the other 6 had a cumulative line of 26 earned runs charged to Lester in 23 and a third innings. He is not just getting hit a little, Lester has been getting rocked. The Royals start Kris Bubic here. The Kansas City left-hander has just one win in five road starts this season and all but one of them went over the total. Bubic has a 7.30 ERA in those 5 road starts and another rough one is likely here. St Louis will take advantage of Bubic pitching to hard contact as the lefty has given up 13 homers in those 5 road starts. Being homer prone has also been an issue for Lester as he has given up a pair of homers in each of his last two starts. The Cardinals have averaged scoring 6 runs a game in their last 6 victories and are a big favorite here for a reason. Look for St Louis to get to at least that number today but the Royals are going to give Lester issues as well and that is why this one gets into double digits in runs scored in most of our computer math models run for this game. This total is in the 9.5 range and our computer math model shows this one getting into a range of about a dozen runs scored with each club enjoying success at the plate and having a solid shot of getting to 5 runs apiece which, of course, would mean at least 11runs (6-5 final at a minimum) in this one. Bet the Over