A Bet To Place On Shota-Day!

Pirates vs. Cubs, 2:20 ET

Day baseball during the Spring is a great tradition. Baseball is one of the few sports I actually prefer to watch at a stadium instead of on television. I'll take a football game on tv any day of the week. Basketball is also a better experience with the help of replay. Hockey is harder for me to watch in person because I feel like I can never find the puck and the announcers are great. But, baseball is the best sport to watch in person. You can be outdoor, enjoy a dog and beer, and sit back and enjoy. Although I won't be at this game, I'll certainly have my eye on it as I put a play on the game between the Pirates and the Cubs. 

The Pirates are looking to do what they can to save the season before it goes too far downhill. At least that is what I seem to think is the reasoning for calling up Paul Skenes who started yesterday. To be honest, that isn't much of a surprise as Skenes will sell tickets, but he also probably deserves to be in the Majors. Still, the Pirates need to start racking up wins so that they stay relevant in the division before the Cubs and Brewers put too much separation behind them. The Pirates seem like they are knocking on the door of success for the past couple of years. I am hopeful for their fan base that they start to find ways to knock the door down. I know it might hurt my beloved Cubbie team if the Pirates are successful, but that's fine. There are too many teams that tank in baseball every season, and don't spend money or anything to get better. We will see how this young team adapts over the next couple of years. One of their younger pitcher's takes the hill as Bailey Falter takes the pill for the Pirates. Falter has made eight starts this season and has a 4.15 ERA overall, but he has struggled quite a bit on the road. In four starts, he has allowed 14 earned runs over 19 innings. In fairness to him, he's allowed three earned runs in ten road innings and 11 earned in the other nine innings. So, basically, he is either terrible or effective through five. He faced the Cubs in his last start and allowed just two earned runs over six innings. 

Chicago Cubs 1B Cody Bellinger and 2B Christopher Morel celebrate after beating the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field. (Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports)

I've made some comments about the Cubs in the past few articles about them. I've mentioned how I didn't expect them to perform all that well this season. I've talked about their injuries. All of this still rings true. Even though I still think their ceiling for this season will be a Wild Card berth, the start can't be much better considering what they've dealt with. Their offseason left a lot to be desired in my opinion, but that's why I run a fantasy team and not a professional team. I make note of that because their offseason really just involved resigning Cody Bellinger, and signing today's starter Shota Imanaga. Imanaga has been one of the best pitchers in baseball, and could even be the best pitcher to this point. He passes the eye test and he passes the statistical looks. For the season, Imanaga has a 0.96 ERA, best in the league. He also has a 0.94 WHIP, eighth best in the league. He has allowed a total of five earned runs this season and most of that is coming from three homers that he has allowed. So essentially if you don't connect for power against him, you're not scoring. The Pirates, though capable of hitting homers, aren't a team that I think we should be overly concerned about. The Cubs lost for the first time in a Imanaga start the last time he pitched, but it wasn't his fault. He went five innings against the Braves and allowed seven hits and three walks, but no runs. 

The Pirates are going to struggle to score off of Imanaga. I can't imagine they will go over their team total, and I expect the Cubs to be leading as Imanaga walks off the mound today. It will be a beautiful day in Chicago and as long as the ball doesn't get air under it, the Pirates probably won't score at all. I'm taking the Cubs -0.5 through five innings and I'll sprinkle a bit on the Pirates team total under. 

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