The Chicago Cubs continue their road trip in Pittsburgh against the Pirates this weekend. It has been well-documented how abysmal they’ve been on the street in 2019 and that has been the recurring theme for them in Philadelphia from the Phillies. The Cubs were swept at a three-game series, concluding with a walk-off grand hit by Bryce Harper on Thursday night.
Pedro Strop acquired his team into trouble , since he allowed two earned runs with no outs and Derek Holland followed his lead to finish the game away with an at-bat against Harper. For the issues he’s had striking out in the plate, Harper’s WPA trails only Christian Yelich of their Brewers. That amount was propelled by his walk-off slam.
For the Cubs, their offense had a hangover contrary to the Pirates last night, even since they generated nothing against Joe Musgrove before getting to him at the 8th inning by placing a runner on 3rd with 1 out. The operation with Kyle Hendricks was a welcome indication, as was the effort of Yu Darvish on Thursday night. It is a tough bullet to consider when you get production from Darvish and Hendricks then get nothing in return, but credit to Hendricks for keeping the Cubs in the sport a night ago.
He gets the game ball for keeping them in the game to give Tony Kemp an opportunity for a go-ahead triple. Trusting the Cubs’ bullpen to close out the game in the 9th was somewhat too much to ask, however. Jon Lester will get the call to your Cubs on Saturday in PNC Park.
Lester was distressed for a bounce back performance in his last outing, and he wasn’t ideal, but was considerably better than he was formerly pitching. The optimism in his step seemed to be backagain. Conversely, the Pirates will be countered to by the Steven Brault. The Pirates will likely soon be hunting only their fourth win since August 3rd, as they’ve gone 3-9 in their past 12 outings. One of those wins came on a walk-off walk. Head below to our free Cubs vs. Pirates pick.
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Steven Brault has just had a standout career in his four-year profession, but he’s at least been consistently average. Brault has a career ERA of 4.57 and he’s hovered around that mark fairly well his entire career in the major leagues. He’s on pace to get a career-high with an ERA of 4.33 moving into Saturday. In his past three outings, Brault posted a 4.50 ERA in 14 innings pitched. He hasn’t overly large or too low throughout his profession.
Consistency like that can make a pitcher a great deal of money for a middle of the rotation choice. He’s coming off what could have been a much better performance against the Cardinals. Brault permitted 4 earned runs in 4.2 innings of work, having surrendered 5 hits and 3 walks as well.
The Cubs have ruined Brault in his career. They are hitting .343 using a .452 OBP at 102 at-bats against Brault. The Cubs have also scored 24 runs on Brault in that interval. If they are effective against Brault in the plate , they may not need to be concerned about the bullpen blowing an outcome.
Lester has allowed 23 runs to the Pirates, but using a lot more plate appearances than the Cubs have experienced against Brault. The Bucs are hitting against on .255 from Lester from 231 at-bats. They are hitting only .242 against lefties on the season as opposed to .269 versus right-handed pitching.
The Cubs input Saturday to some four-game losing streak with declines in six of the past seven matches, all which have come to the street. How much more pathetic can it make for the Cubs? I believe that they find it to avoid more embarrassment and prevent collapsing on Saturday supporting Lester. The Cubs probably return on track for the second in Pittsburgh in this .
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