The final game of the first half of the season will go down at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, PA where the Pirates will look to win a game and hopefully the series against a Chicago Cubs squad that’s beaten them with the ugly stick all season long.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
Chicago continues to slump as the season slowly crawls into the All-Star break. Once a team that was playing .800 ball, the Cubs now find themselves with the second best record in the National League after dropping six of their last 10 games heading into Thursday’s make-up game with the wretched Atlanta Braves. Though they currently sit 20 games over .500, they’ve still cost baseball bettors over $300 due to the fact that oddsmakers make them heavy favorites in a majority of their games. They’ll look to close the first half out on a high on the road where they’ve won 26 of 45 played games to date.
Don’t look now, but the Pirates are gaining some major steam. June for the most part was terrible for this club who suffered a multitude of injuries and fell out of the divisional and Wild Card races because of it. However, since just failing to sweep a four game series from the Dodgers, Pittsburgh has rattled off seven straight wins and leapfrogged St. Louis in the standings after taking the first three at Busch Stadium to start the final week of the first half. They’ll look to finish strong back at home where they sit three games over .500 overall.
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Armed with one of the best change ups in all of baseball, Kyle Hendricks will take to the bump in this one for the 17th time looking to secure his third straight win and fourth in his last five starts. Last time out, he tossed 5.1 innings of one run ball against the Reds to log win No. 7. The heady righty has been fantastic in 2016 sporting a 2.61 ERA and 1.04 WHIP while allowing just 7.0 hits per nine innings and a total of eight long balls. Five of his six losses have however been incurred on the road where his ERA jumps up to 3.63. Through two starts at PNC, he’s been roughed up to the tune of a 7.56 ERA and .314 batting average against.
Jonathon Niese has recently been bothered by a sore knee. Because of it and the fact that the Buccos are struggling to find starting pitchers right now, his start has been bumped back to Sunday to give him an extra day of rest. He’ll take to the bump in this one looking to improve upon his 4.87 ERA and 1.52 WHIP. Averaging better than three walks and 10+ hits per start, it comes as no surprise to see the lefty sporting a poor 1.52 WHIP through his 17 made starts. Pittsburgh won nine of those outings, and he’s been a bit better at home where his WHIP dips down to 1.34.
LIVE BETTING
Kris Bryant is scorching hot at the plate right now. Dating back to June 27, the young multi position stud has gone yard seven times and hit safely in all but one game during that stretch.
He’s owned Niese throughout his career in raking five hits in 10 at-bats with one reaching the cheap seats to go along with 3 RBI and a couple of walks. He owns a 1.017 OPS against south paws to date, so if Niese isn’t careful, he just might serve one up. Prop and DFS players best look Bryant’s way in this match-up.
QUICK PICK
Hendricks logged one of his most impressive starts of the season against the Pirates back on June 19 when he tossed six innings of 1 ER ball and tallied a career-high 12 strikeouts. Niese has served up a combined 15 hits and 10 ER over 10.1 innings in two starts against Chicago. It doesn’t take a math genius to look at those number and know the home team is in a bad spot before the first pitch is even thrown.
MLB Odds: Cubs 6, Pirates 3
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