Game Time: 2:20 pm ET, Saturday, September 4th, 2021

Venue:  Wrigley Field, Chicago Illinois

Where to Watch:  ATT SportsNet-PIT, Marquee Sports Network

 

DraftKings:  Moneyline odds: Pirates +110, Cubs -130; Over/Under:  

 

Pirates: 48-87, last place,  NL Central

Cubs:  61-75, 4th place NL Central

 

 Al McMordie CASHED yesterday on the SF Giants over Milwaukee.  Get Al’s MLB DIVISION GAME OF THE MONTH!   It's available right now at the Shop Picks page, where you can find all of the Best Bets from our champion sports handicappers.

 

Recent Form

The Pirates are 3-7 over their last ten games.  Logging 5 Overs and 5 Unders.  They went 1-1 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-2 against the St. Louis Cardinals, and got swept by the White Sox in 2 frames 0-2, and blanked by these same Cubs in 2 0-2.  Pit is the pits.   As this is being written the Pirates are toweling off at Wrigley Field having just lost the Friday sept 3rd day game with the CHC.  It has been a countdown for every Pirates player… June, July, August, trade deadline… etc, etc.  They all desperately want to get out of Pittsburgh and get to that beckoning offseason.  

 

The Cubs are rolling 7-3 over their last ten games. Notching 6 Overs, 3 Unders and 1 Push.  They have mostly been getting wins off bad teams but they took one from the city rival White Sox.  They went 2-1 against the Colorado Rockies, 1-2 against the Chicago White Sox, 2-0 against the Minnesota Twins, and started this series against the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0.    

These are both bad teams.  The pirates on paper are worse for sure, but they are both bad.  At this time of the year… they are both doing little chemistry experiments.  Calling guys up to fill holes in the line-up, calling guys up to make them a starter and see how they handle the mound with Major League Pressure.  In the Cubs case they picked up some odds and ends pieces from their massive cost cutting, player moving, and prospect hoarding moves pulled off at the trade deadline.  The result for both teams is chaos.  They lose or win based on minor league pitching match-ups.  In fact I couldn’t find Over/Under numbers right away for this one because the boys with the cigars in dark rooms are still crunching numbers from the game that was just played. Trying to make sense of yet another TBD pitching announcement.

 

The Pirates will be pitching TBD.  The season record for the Pirates implies it would be an improvement to call a guy up from triple-A and put him out there.  Most likely though this is a bullpen game.  They’ll start whoever wasn’t burned in their first 2 losses against the Cubs and see what they can do playing tag all day long.

 

The Cubs will start big dog Kyle Hendricks.  The right-handed pitcher is 14-6, 4.43 ERA, 117 strikeouts in 156 ip, 1.34 WHIP.  The 31 year old has been throwing heat in the majors since his debut in 2014.  He’s a career 83-54 guy with a 3.29 ERA.  “Hendo” was drafted by the Rangers in 2011 but has done all his throwing for the Cubs over his 8 seasons.  He will be better than whoever TBD is for the Pirates.

Our prediction for the Saturday September 4th game  is  Cubs 5 -  Pirates 1

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The Pirates are 20-48 in road games.

The Pirates are 18-35 in day games.

The Pirates O/U record on the road is 29-33-6.

The Cubs are 35-32 at home.

The Cubs are 26-33 in day games.

The O/U for Cubs home games is 33-29-5.

 

 

Pirates:  Ke’Bryan Hayes 3B, (hand) Day to Day, Henry Davis C (oblique) will miss rest of season.

Cubs: Nico Hoerner SS, (oblique) 10DAY IL,  Wilson Contreras C (knee) 10DAY IL

 

Pirates-  Bryan Reynolds.  Hitting .299, with 21 homers,  77 RBI’s, and 74 runs scored.  If you get conned into watching a Pirates game… he is pretty much the show.

 

Cubs-  Kris Bryant… no he was traded.  Anthony Rizzo… no he was traded.  That trade deadline emptied the Cubs of whatever quality players there were.  A couple of guys are left clinging to their sanity as the team free-falls into nothingness…. You could watch Wilson Contreras. He's a good hitter… wait he’s on the 10 Day IL?

 

"Eventually, I'm going to get hot,...The biggest thing is just swing decision and not missing the pitches that's in the zone." -Pirates player, Anthony Alford who hit 2 home runs in a losing effort against the cubs Friday afternoon.

"I didn't stick around to find out. ... At this point in time, your guess is as good as mine," - Cubs Bench coach Andy Green after getting kicked out.  He was acting manager because the Cubs manager and General manager are both out with Covid.  I’m told the ball boy took over.

 

 

 

C. Tucker, SS

B. Gamel, RF

B. Reynolds, CF

C. Moran, 1B

K. Newman, 2B

M. Perez, C

A. Alford, LF

H. Park, 3B

S. Brault, P

 

Cubs

M. Hermosillo, LF

F. Schwindel, 1B

P. Wisdom, 3B

M. Duffy, 2B

I. Happ, RF

A. Romine, C

A. Rivas, LF

S. Alcantara, SS

A. Mills, P

 

 

Pirates

Batting Average:  A Frazier (.324)

Home Runs:  B Reynolds (21)

RBI:  B Reynolds (77)

Stolen Bases: G Polanco (14)

Wins:  J Brubaker (5)

Saves:  R Rodriguez (14)

 

Cubs

Batting Average:  Iann Happ (.208)

Home Runs:  P Wisdom (25)

Stolen Bases:  Javy Baez (13)

Wins: K Hendricks (14)

Saves:  C Kimbrel (23)

ERA:  K Hendricks (4.43)

 

Managers:

Pirates:  Derek Shelton

Cubs:  Out with Covid

Scattered showers, precipitation 30%, Humidity 74%, 11mph winds.  High of 76*.

Showers mean a wet field which means a squirrely ball.