{"id":2664,"date":"2018-04-11T01:27:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T01:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2024-07-17T13:09:39","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T13:09:39","slug":"pittsburgh-pirates-at-chicago-cubs-wednesday-april-11-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-at-chicago-cubs-wednesday-april-11-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs &#8211; Wednesday April 11, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>Chicago Cubs<\/strong> look to get on track when they host the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night. After the Pirates took the opening game of the series on Tuesday 8-5, the <strong>Cubs<\/strong> are listed as a -180 favorite to win Wednesday night at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Pirates<\/strong> have been one of the biggest surprises in baseball early in the year. They are 8-2 on the young season and a perfect 4-0 on the road after Tuesday\u2019s win in Chicago. Pittsburgh\u2019s pitching staff has been excellent early in the year, but more importantly, nearly every Pirates hitter has been mashing the ball.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Cubs<\/strong>, however, are just 5-5 on the season, three games back of the Pirates in the NL Central. On paper, the Cubs have a deep and powerful lineup, but that has not been the case early in the season. To make matters worse, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/news\/cubs-anthony-rizzo-on-disabled-list-with-back-injury-a-look-at-their-replacement-options\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Rizzo was placed on the DL Tuesday with a back issue.<\/a> Chicago\u2019s rotation also began the season with a lot of fanfare but has been largely mediocre thus far.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"leave-it-to-lester\"><strong>Leave It To Lester<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Jon<\/strong> <strong>Lester<\/strong> is the lone <strong>Cubs<\/strong> starter to pitch well this season, and he\u2019ll get the ball Wednesday night. The veteran lefty has a 2.89 ERA after throwing six scoreless innings against the Brewers last time out. He faced the Pirates three times last seasons, going 1-2 and having a couple of his worst starts of the season, so Pittsburgh\u2019s hitters won\u2019t be intimidated to face him.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest challenge Lester faces is that the Pirates are right-hand heavy outside of <strong>Gregory<\/strong> <strong>Polanco<\/strong> and Corey Dickerson. Also, a few of Pittsburgh\u2019s ancillary players like Jordy Mercer, Josh Harrison, and David Freese have good numbers against Lester, meaning the Pirates have the pieces to hurt him up and down the lineup.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"whos-this-guy\"><strong>Who\u2019s This Guy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Pirates will send lefty <strong>Steven Brault<\/strong> to the mound to oppose Lester. Most people outside of Pittsburgh have probably never heard of <strong>Brault<\/strong>. But he\u2019s pitched well early in the season, allowing one run on three hits over five innings against the Reds last time out. That being said, he was hit hard by the Cubs all three times he faced them in 2017, so he\u2019ll need to be at the top of his game Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>As a team, the <strong>Cubs<\/strong> are 18 for 43 (.419) against Brault. While no one player has more than seven career at-bats against the lefty, Albert Almora, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, and Jason Heyward have all done damage against Brault. That being said, outside of Bryant, Willson Contreras, and Ben Zobrist, the Cubs have struggled to get going offensively early in the year. In fact, Almora, Baez, and Ian Happ are all hitting under .200.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"the-friendly-confines\"><strong>The Friendly Confines<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Something has to give in this game. <strong>Brault<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/odds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has struggled against the Cubs in his career<\/a>, but the Cubs are yet to click offensively. Lester, meanwhile, was good in his last time out but will have to face a red-hot Pirates lineup. In such instances, it\u2019s best to go with the home team. <strong>Bet on the Cubs -180 to beat the Pirates.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs host the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday in a National League battle.","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3035],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs - Wednesday April 11, 2018 - The Latest Sports Betting News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs - Wednesday April 11, 2018 - The Latest Sports Betting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Chicago Cubs host the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday in a National League battle.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-at-chicago-cubs-wednesday-april-11-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Latest Sports Betting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-11T01:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-17T13:09:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/04\/C-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Knuppel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@offshorebookies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@offshorebookies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Knuppel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-at-chicago-cubs-wednesday-april-11-2018\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/pittsburgh-pirates-at-chicago-cubs-wednesday-april-11-2018\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ryan Knuppel\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.offshoresportsbooks.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7a9dbad5ae3c8a6c42f9f74db3687818\"},\"headline\":\"Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs &#8211; 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