Pittsburgh Pirates (48-88) vs. Chicago Cubs (62-75)
September 5, 2021 2:20 pm EDT
The Line: Chicago Cubs -152 / Pittsburgh Pirates +115; Over/Under: 9.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago Cubs meet in an NL Central matchup in MLB action from Wrigley Field on Sunday afternoon.
The Pittsburgh Pirates will look to rebound from a 7-6 loss at the hands of the Cubs on Saturday. Wilmer Difo had two RBIs while Yoshi Tsutsugo had a solo home run. Anthony Alford and Colin Moran each had an RBI as well while Kevin Newman, Jacob Stallings and Phillip Evans each had a base hit as well to finish off the offense for Pittsburgh in the losing effort. JT Brubaker gave up three runs on four hits while striking out five over three innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Chris Stratton took the loss in relief, falling to 5-1 on the year as a result. Wil Crowe will start here and is 3-7 with a 5.46 ERA and 88 strikeouts this season.
The Chicago Cubs will try to build off of their win over the Cubs from Saturday. Frank Schwindel had a home run and two total RBIs while Rafael Ortega had three hits with a double and an RBI while Sergio Alcantara, Jason Heyward, Matt Duffy and Alfonso Rivas each had RBIs to cap off the scoring for the Cubs in the win. Ian Happ added a double as well to cap off Chicago’s offense as a team in the victory. Kyle Hendricks allowed six runs on five hits over 4.1 innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Scott Effross got the win in relief to improve to 1-0 on the year. Zach Davies will start here and is 6-10 with a 4.91 ERA and 105 strikeouts this season.
Pittsburgh is 25-53 in their last 78 games overall and 13-39 in their last 52 division games while the under is 22-7-4 in their last 33 Sunday games. Chicago is 0-5 in their last 5 Sunday games and 0-5 in their last 5 game four matchups while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games as a favorite.
I’m kind of glad this series is over, because it’s been hard to really get a feel for which side you can back and now Sunday, we have to deal with two starters in Crowe and Davies that haven’t had a ton of success while being batting practice for opposing teams this season. These are two struggling offensive clubs as well, but given the pitching matchup, I like the over in this one.
