Philadelphia Phillies vs Pittsburgh Pirates MLB Picks, Odds, Predictions 9/23/2021

The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies meet in MLB action from Citizens Bank Park on Thursday.

The Pittsburgh Pirates had an impromptu day off after their series finale with the Reds was postponed, leaving the Pirates unable to follow up on their 6-2 win over the Reds from Tuesday. Ben Gamel had a solo home run while Yoshi Tsutsugo had a pinch-hit double and RBI. Ha-Seong Park, Michael Perez, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Cole Tucker all had RBIs to finish off Pittsburgh’s scoring as a team in the win while Anthony Alford chipped in a base knock of his own in the victory. Mitch Keller got the win to improve to 5-11 on the year after allowing two runs on seven hits with a pair of strikeouts over 5.2 innings of work. Connor Overton will start here and is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 9 strikeouts this season.

The Philadelphia Phillies will be out to build on their 4-3 win over the Orioles from Wednesday’s action. Andrew McCutchen had a home run and two RBIs while Jean Segura had a pair of hits and an RBI and J.T. Realmuto added an RBI as well to finish off the scoring for the Phillies in the win. Brad Miller added a pinch-hit double while Matt Vierling had a pair of hits. Zack Wheeler, Freddy Galvis and Bryce Harper all had base hits as well to finish off the Phillies’ offense as a team in the win. Wheeler allowed one run on four hits with nine strikeouts over six innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Jose Alvarado got the win in relief to improve to 7-1 on the year while Ian Kennedy closed the 9^th for his 25^th save. Aaron Nola will start here and is 8-8 with a 4.48 ERA and 211 strikeouts this season.

Pittsburgh is 4-1 in their last 5 series opening games and 9-4 in their last 13 games against the NL East while the over is 11-1 in their last 12 Thursday games. Philadelphia is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall and 4-9 in their last 13 series-opening games while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 series-opening games.

I’m really not sure what to make of the Pirates here, as the offense has a tendency of struggling and the pitching hasn’t been great on top of not knowing what to expect from Overton in the start. However, I’m not laying this price with the Phillies or even the run line when Philadelphia had a world of trouble putting away the Orioles to start the week. Pittsburgh shocked the Reds here and there and if they can do that, I give them a punchers chance against the Phils. Aaron Nola’s supposed to be the staff ace, but he hasn’t pitched like an ace for much of the year so I’ll take my shot with Pittsburgh +1.5 here.