Pittsburgh Pirates (48-85) vs. Chicago Cubs (59-75)
September 2, 2021 8:05 pm EDT
The Line: Chicago Cubs -125 / Pittsburgh Pirates -105; Over/Under: 8.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago Cubs meet in MLB action from Wrigley Field on Thursday.
The Pittsburgh Pirates will look to bounce back from a 6-3 loss at the hands of the White Sox on Wednesday. Anthony Alford had a solo home run while Cole Tucker had a double and an RBI as part of his two-hit day and Jacob Stallings had a base hit as well to finish off Pittsburgh’s offense as a team in the loss. Yoshi Tsutsugo had a double as well while Wilmer Difo, Hoy Park and Colin Moran all had base hits as well to cap off Pittsburgh’s offense as a team in the defeat. Max Kranick took the loss, falling to 1-3 after allowing five runs on eight hits over 4.2 innings of work. Mitch Keller will start here and is 4-10 with a 6.75 ERA and 68 strikeouts this season.
The Chicago Cubs will try to build off of their 3-0 win over the Twins from Wednesday night. Frank Schwindel’s three-run home run was the lone scoring that either side would do in the game while Andrew Romine had a double. Jason Heyward and Ian Happ each had base hits as well to make up the rest of Chicago’s offense as the Cubs had just four hits as a team in the victory. Justin Steele got the win to improve to 3-2 on the year after tossing five innings of one-hit shutout baseball, striking out three. Adbert Alzolay closed the final four innings for his 1st save. Keegan Thompson will start here and is 3-3 with a 3.09 ERA and 45 strikeouts this season.
Pittsburgh is 4-1 in their last 5 series-opening games and 13-38 in their last 51 road games while the under is 11-3-2 in their last 16 games overall. Chicago is 16-42 in their last 58 games overall and 2-8 in their last 10 series-opening games while the over is 9-4 in their last 13 series-opening games.
I find myself trying to make a case for either side here, but this feels like a game where nothing can win. The over needs two poor offenses to come alive while the under needs two gas can pitchers to keep runs off of the board. The Pirates and the Cubs are also not easy to trust for consistent offense either. However, the Cubs have not been anything special despite being better at home than Pittsburgh has on the road, and I think we’re more likely to get a decent performance from Mitch Keller than I think Chicago is in terms of getting one from Thompson here. Give me Pittsburgh.
