2020-08-23 14:20:00 EDT
The Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs meet Sunday in MLB action from Wrigley Field.
This will be the third and final matchup in the weekend series between these interleague city rivals. The White Sox blasted in a dominant 10-1 victory on Friday in the opener. In the Saturday game two, the White Sox kept it going with another win, this time 7-4. Check back all season long for free MLB picks and MLB predictions at Sports Chat Place.
The White Sox really didn’t get going in Saturday’s win until the eighth inning, when they broke a 3-2 lead wide open and scored four runs over the final two frames. Jose Abreu was the big hitter there, with three homers, four hits and four RBI in a stellar game.
For the Sunday starting pitcher role, the Sox will send out Dylan Cease. Over five starts this season, Cease is 4-1 with a 3.16 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 25.2 innings total. Across his MLB career, Cease sports an 8-8 record with a 5.11 ERA and 98 Ks in 98.2 innings.
Over on the Cubs’ side, Kyle Hendricks preformed well enough in Saturday’s loss, but couldn’t get the win. He managed 5.1 innings with seven hits and three earned runs, but coughed up two homers and only struck out three batters. No Cubs hitter had multiple knocks, and the team could only muster a half-dozen hits on the evening.
For the Sunday start, the Cubs will go with veteran Yu Darvish. In five starts this year, Darvish is 4-1 with a 1.80 ERA and 34 Ks in 30.0 innings. Darvish is also 67-54 in his MLB career with a 3.52 ERA and 1333 Ks in 1081.0 frames total.
The White Sox are 5-2 in their last seven during game three of a series and 20-45 in their last 65 interleague games. The White Sox are also 10-26 in their last 36 interleague road games and the under is 19-9-1 in their last 29 Sunday games.
Meanwhile, the Cubs are 20-7 in their last 27 interleague home games and 52-21 in their last 73 interleague games as a favorite. The Cubs are 53-26 in their last 79 games as a home favorite and the over is 18-7-1 in their last 26 interleague games versus a team with a winning record.
Pick: Going with the Cubs, but this one looks pretty close. On paper, the game should be a lower-scoring pitching battle. Cease is 4-0 with a 1.93 ERA in August over his MLB career, but he’s never faced the Cubs before. As for Darvish, he’s coming off one run on eight hits in six innings versus the Cardinals, and holds a nice 3-1 record with a 1.96 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 23 innings at Wrigley Field this year. I like both starters to go deep into this one, and it should be a pretty fun game to watch.
