Kansas City Royals vs Cleveland Guardians Prediction 4/12/25 MLB Picks

The Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Guardians meet Saturday in MLB action from Progressive Field. This will be the second installment in a three-game weekend series. Here’s a Royals vs Guardians prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Royals vs Guardians pick. We will examine: 

The Kansas City Royals recent form and player performance

The Cleveland Guardians recent form and player performance 

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Kansas City Royals

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Cleveland Guardians

Recent betting trends in games played between the Royals and Guardians

A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the Royals vs Guardians game

Kansas City Royals Betting Preview

The Royals played the Guardians in their first series of the 2025 season, losing two of three games. Kansas City dropped two of three versus the Milwaukee Brewers in their next matchup as well, then finally won their first series of the year versus the Baltimore Orioles as April got going. This week versus the Minnesota Twins, Kansas City took wins in the first pair 4-2 and 2-1, then lost 4-0 in game three. In the Thursday finale the Royals scored twice in the seventh on the way to a 3-2 victory. Starter Michael Wacha lasted 5.1 innings with two earned runs. 

On Friday in the opener versus the Guardians, the Royals took a shutout loss 7-0. Kansas City’s Kris Bubic put up 6.0 innings with two earned runs, six hits and two walks in the starting role. 

In the starter slot for the Saturday game Kansas City will go with Michael Lorenzen. Over two starts this year so far Lorenzen is 1-1 with a 3.18 ERA in 11.1 innings total. Over 370 career games (95 starts) Lorenzen is 48-45 with a 3.98 ERA. 

Cleveland Guardians Betting Preview

Over on the Cleveland side, they got wins 7-4 and 6-2 in their opening series versus KC, then got swept in three games by the San Diego Padres in the next set. Cleveland lost another series with two losses in three games versus the San Diego Padres last weekend, but came back against the White Sox with wins 1-0 and 3-2 in the first pair. In the Thursday finale versus Chicago the Guardians bagged 10 team hits in a 6-1 victory for the sweep. Steven Kwan logged four hits, two runs, four RBI and a home run in the win. 

On Friday Cleveland bagged 11 hits in the win. The Guardians scored three times in the fourth inning and four more times in the eighth. Tanner Bibee went 4.2 clean innings in the start with three hits, four walks and four Ks. Gabriel Arias had three hits, three RBI and a home run along the way. 

It’ll be Luis Ortiz in the starter slot for Cleveland on Saturday. So far this year Ortiz is 0-2 with an 8.44 ERA in his two starts and 10.2 innings. Over his career Ortiz is 12-15 with a 4.12 ER

Royals vs Guardians Prediction 

I’ll lean toward Cleveland, but you could call this one either way. Ortiz has had some struggles so far this year, especially in his debut versus the Padres. In that one Ortiz put up 4.2 innings with seven earned on nine hits and four walks. Start number two was better—but still a loss. Ortiz logged 6.0 innings with three earned on seven hits April 6 versus the Angels. He’ll need to keep sharpening up if the Guardians want to get a victory Saturday. 

In Friday’s game Cleveland had a nice offensive outburst and the pitching staff helped close things out. I like the Guardians to keep things going in an eventual win, but this should be a competitive matchup in the end.