Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox:
The Chicago White Sox are in a historically bad stretch that has seen the team lose 22 of their past 23 games as they welcome their intra-city rivals, the Chicago Cubs on Friday.
While ace Garrett Crochet gets the start for the White Sox on Friday, his starts have not been conducive to winning games, as the team has lost each of his past eight starts.
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Crochet owns a 3.19 ERA with 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings and a 2.64 fielding independent, but has been limited in his past few starts.
The official innings limit Crochet has for 2024 is unknown, but it has led to him pitching four innings or fewer in all five of his starts since July began and the White Doc bullpen has a 6.77 ERA in their bullpen since July 1.
No other team in Major League Baseball has worse than a 5.84 ERA since July 1, and in this span, the Cubs have a 1.77 bullpen ERA, which leads the league by a wide margin, with no other team owning better than a 2.82 ERA in this span.
Jameson Taillon gets the start on the mound for the Cubs and will look to put the bullpen in a good position. He enters with a 3.25 ERA and, though he is only getting seven strikeouts per nine innings, is only issuing 1.8 walks per nine innings.
The Cubs also benefit from facing a White Sox lineup at or near last place in nearly every offensive category, averaging less than 3.1 runs per game, more than a half run per game less than the next-lowest scoring output in the league.
While the Cubs are only 19th in the league in runs per game, they are generating more offense on the road than at home, with 4.3 runs per game away from home compared to 4.1 runs per game at home.
With Crochet’s innings limited and the White Sox’s inability to hit, the Cubs will begin this rivalry series with a win on Friday.
MLB Pick: Cubs -130
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