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Cubs look to sweep Pirates on Wednesday
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 8/31/2016  at  10:54:00 AM
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PITTSBURGH PIRATES (67-63)

at CHICAGO CUBS (84-47)

First pitch: Wednesday, 8:05 p.m. ET
Line: Pittsburgh +155, Chicago -165, Total: N/A

The Cubs will be going for a three-game sweep when they host the Pirates on Wednesday night.

Pittsburgh is currently vying for a Wild Card spot in the National League, but the team has now lost two straight games and can’t afford to drop this one on Wednesday. The Pirates are currently chasing the Cardinals for that second spot and St. Louis has won two straight. If the Pirates don’t start putting together some winning streaks soon then they will miss out on postseason action. The Cubs, meanwhile, have the best record in baseball by a wide margin. As long as they don’t completely collapse, they’ll have home-field advantage up until the World Series. The starters in this big Wednesday matchup are set to be RHP Ryan Vogelsong (3-3, 3.02 ERA, 39 K) for Pittsburgh and RHP Jason Hammel (13-7, 3.21 ERA, 116 K) for Chicago. One interesting trend when looking at this game is that the Pirates are 30-26 against the money line as an underdog of +100 or higher this season. Chicago, however, is 17-2 against the money line when playing while its bullpen has an ERA of 2.00 or lower over its past 10 games this season.

The Pirates are desperate for a victory on Wednesday and they could use a solid performance out of Vogelsong. The righty has pitched well in each of his past two appearances for the team. He allowed just one earned run in six innings of work against the Marlins on Aug. 21 and followed that up by allowing just two earned runs in 5.1 innings of work against the Brewers on Aug. 26. The Pirates would surely sign up for another outing like those on Wednesday, but they’ll need some of their guys to provide Vogelsong with run support. OF Gregory Polanco (.273, 21 HR, 79 RBI) is one guy that the Pirates will be counting on in this one. Polanco has been on fire at the plate lately, racking up four homers and 12 RBI over the past eight games. He should be able to do some damage in this one as well, as he is hitting .275 with 16 HR and 63 RBI against righties this season. He also happens to be going up against one that is really struggling right now.

The Cubs are on fire heading into Wednesday’s game, but Jason Hammel has not been contributing to the team’s recent success. Over his past two starts, Hammel has allowed 15 hits and nine earned runs in just 5.2 innings of work. This is a guy that was as sturdy as they come early in the season and it’s crucial that Hammel regains his form heading into the postseason. Perhaps facing Pittsburgh is something that will give Hammel some confidence. He has pitched well against the Pirates this season, allowing just three earned runs in 11.2 innings of work against the team. Offensively, 1B Anthony Rizzo (.294, 26 HR, 93 RBI) is somebody that will really be looking forward to this one. Rizzo has dominated Vogelsong in his career, going 4-for-8 with three homers and five RBI against the pitcher. He also happened to have homered for Chicago on Tuesday, so he should be feeling confident heading into Wednesday’s game.


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