Cleveland Indians vs. Pittsburgh Pirates – 9/25/20 MLB Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cleveland Indians meet in MLB action from Progressive Field on Friday night.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will look to build off of a 7-0 win over the Chicago Cubs from Thursday afternoon. Adam Frazier and Josh Bell each had two RBIs to lead the way for Pittsburgh with each logging a home run as well while Colin Moran had a double and a solo home run. Bryan Reynolds added a solo homer as well, while Gregory Polanco had an RBI of his own to finish off the scoring for Pittsburgh in the win. Jared Oliva went 2 for 4 at the dish while JT Riddle and Ke’Bryan Hayes added a base hit each to finish off the offense for Pittsburgh in the victory. Chad Kuhl got the win for Pittsburgh on the mound after tossing seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits while striking out five on the way to a win to bring him to 2-3 on the year. Mitch Keller will start here and is 1-1 with a 3.24 ERA and 13 strikeouts this season. This will be Keller’s first career start against the Indians.

The Cleveland Indians will look to build on a massive 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night. Cesar Hernandez led the way, going 3 for 4 with a double and three RBIs while Jose Ramirez had a double and two RBIs, going 2 for 4 at the dish. Roberto Perez added a double as well while Franmil Reyes, Mike Freeman, Tyler Naquin and Josh Naylor all had base hits as well in the winning effort for the Tribe. Zach Plesac allowed four runs on four hits with seven strikeouts over 6.2 innings of work, not factoring in the decision while Cameron Hill got the win in relief to improve to 2-0 on the year and Brad Hand closed out the 9th for his 15th save of the season. Carlos Carrasco will start here and is 3-4 with a 2.90 ERA and 74 strikeouts this season. In his career, Carrasco is 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA and 9 strikeouts against Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh is 18-41 in their last 59 games overall and 18-46 in their last 64 road games while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 games as an underdog. Cleveland is 5-0 in their last 5 games overall and 4-0 in their last 4 home games while the under is 3-0-1 in their last 4 interleague games as a favorite. Pittsburgh is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings between these two teams in Cleveland.

I get why the Indians are favored as Pittsburgh is the worst team in the majors by a wide margin and the Indians are coming off of that big win against the White Sox on Thursday. However, Mitch Keller’s pitched well when healthy this season, and while they’re uncommon, you have to wonder if a letdown is in play after such a big win over Chicago on Thursday. I just think that Carrasco’s damage is done within the division and Pittsburgh has a fighting chance when Keller’s been their best or one of their best so far this season. I’ll take a stab at Pittsburgh and the plus money and since both pitchers have been on their A-game lately, I’ll take a look at the under in this game.