2020-09-09 20:15:00 EDT
The Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs meet in an NL Central division matchup in MLB action from Wrigley Field on Wednesday.
The Cincinnati Reds will try to rebound after a 3-0 loss to the Cubs on Tuesday night. Shogo Akiyama went 2 for 3 at the dish while Tucker Barnhart and Mike Moustakas each had a double. Brian Goodwin added a base hit as well to finish off the offense for the Reds as Cincinnati mustered up just five hits as a team in the losing effort. Tyler Mahle took the loss, giving up three runs on four hits while striking out ten over seven innings of work to fall to 1-2 this season. Trevor Bauer will start here and is 3-3 with a 2.05 ERA and 61 strikeouts this season. In his career, Bauer is 4-1 with a 1.41 ERA and 37 strikeouts against the Cubs.
The Chicago Cubs on the other hand will look to build on another victory over the Reds on Tuesday. David Bote had a triple and two RBIs while Javier Baez had a triple and an RBI of his own to make up Chicago’s scoring as a team in the win. Willson Contreras and Cameron Maybin each had hits as well to finish off Chicago’s offense as the Cubbies had just four hits as a team in the victory. Alec Mills got the win to improve to 4-3 on the year after thiteming six shutout innings, giving up just four hits while striking out six in the win. Jeremy Jeffress closed out the 9th for his 6th save of the season. Yu Darvish will start here and is 7-1 with a 1.44 ERA and 63 strikeouts this season. In his career, Darvish is 4-2 with a 3.21 ERA and 73 strikeouts against Cincinnati.
Cincinnati is 4-1 in their last 5 road games and 4-11 in their last 15 games as an underdog while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games within the division. Chicago is 4-9 in their last 13 home games and 5-2 in their last 7 games as a favorite while the under is 5-0-1 in their last 6 games overall.
This shapes up to be a pretty good pitching matchup on paper, but Bauer’s hit a bumpy patch, losing his last three starts while allowing 11 runs in 17.2 innings and despite a solid ERA against the Cubs in his career, the lone start against the Cubbies this season saw Bauer allow three runs in 5.1 innings just two starts ago. Darvish has been Cy Young calibre this season, and in his lone start against Cincinnati, Darvish threw six shutout innings. I think we could be in for another long night if we’re backing the Reds, so I’ll lay the juice with Chicago and Darvish here.
