what's going on everyone Chris from piic dogs.com here with your free pick in the Chicago Cubs versus Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball matchup going down Wednesday September 4th 2024 just a reminder if you haven't already make sure you subscribe to our Channel and smash that thumbs up and if you're looking for my Best Bets the games that I love including my daily $19 best bet head on over to pick dogs.com and click the premium picks tab at the top of the page but let's get to this one between the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates the Chicago Cubs sending out show to imanaga for the start in this one for the Pittsburgh Pirates I have seen biley falter listed on ESPN we'll have to see if that ends up being the case we'll try to update that for you on Wednesday's Morning Show if that information is available like I said we do know right now is that imanaga is slated to get the start for the uh for the Chicago Cubs and imanaka probably going to give uh the Cubs or at least uh give the Pirates a different look for the Cubs as Justin seal was supposed to start on H Tuesday we'll have to see if he ends up seeing any sort of action all or maybe he was a scratch for a certain reason it went from being Justin steel to Kyle Hendrick now that would mean that this would be the first time that the Pirates are facing a lefty in this series and you know the Pirates are a team that I've had a really hard time backing against left-handed pitching from much of the season and you look at their numbers in the last two weeks against left-handed pitching fourth worst team in baseball in terms of Team Ops a 229 batting average but in the last two weeks I get it's a two week sample size and you don't necessarily get a ton of play to appearances against lefties but we're talking about a 35.4% strikeout rate they are striking out a ton against left-handed pitching and showy imanaga is a pitcher that's already seen the Pirates once this season struck him out seven times in that game he's been back on a roll as of late you know he's put up quality starts and back-to-back outings on the road goes back home last time we saw him at home it was five innings and one- run ball against the Blue Jays it ended up being a loss but the fact of the matter is that right now the Chicago Cubs offense is just rolling yes they took the loss in Monday's opener we'll have to see how Tuesday's game goes but this is a Cubs lineup that is playing really well right now and you look at their numbers in the last two weeks against left-handed pitching they're above League average in team Ops the isolated power numbers aren't great but they're hitting 278 against left-handed pitching so if they face bayy falter here I think falter could be in a bit of a rough spot considering he's not a very good starting pitcher in my opinion not one of the better options in that pirates rotation and if the Pirates were to go in a different direction and go the right-handed pitcher well in the last two weeks the Chicago Cubs in terms of hitting against right-handed pitching are the best team in baseball in terms of Team Ops batting average the isolated power numbers are tied for top five as well and when you look at the Pirates bullpen in the last two weeks well they have the worst Bullpen ER in baseball over that two week spam by almost two full runs 7.91 erra the next team in 29th in terms of second worst ra is at 6.06 so the Pirates are just in major freef fall right now and are just playing themselves out of the race and just look like a team that's kind of just playing out the string here while the Cubs I think this this Cubs team thinks that they could be you know another team that could potentially crash the uh the party in the uh in the National League playoff race so I'm going to go with the Chicago Cubs and this one behind a strong start from imanaga and that's going to be my free pick but just a reminder if you haven't already make sure you subscribe to our Channel and smash that thumbs up and if you're looking for my Best Bets you can find those at pick dogs premium your pick dogs check out our betting tools they're 100% free they're the best betting tools in the business and tools that you want to make sure that you have in your back pocket when you're making your Best Bets for the day's action thanks for watching see you guys soon