The Cubs and Pirates meet for the first time since the Cubs treated the Pirates like the Gatorade cooler in the Pirates dugout. One can hope that tempers are cooler this time around. The Pirates have come out of the gate hot with the best team wOBA in all of baseball. Their pitching, however, has been less good, posting a 4.60 FIP largely fueled by the third-worst walk rate in the majors. They trail fellow division-mates Milwaukee and Cincy in this category, though at least they have the excuse of having faced this Cubs lineup.
Team Leaders
Cubs
- OBP: Fowler (.470)
- ISO: Rizzo (.341)
- HR: Rizzo (8)
- R+RBI: Rizzo (40)
- wRC+: Fowler (185)
- BSR: Heyward (2.7)
- SP K/9: Lester (8.65)
- SP BB/9: Hendricks (1.57)
- SP FIP: Hammel (2.48)
- RP K/9: Rondon (15.75)
- RP BB/9: Rondon (0.00)
- RP FIP: Rondon (-0.43)
- WAR: Fowler (2.0)
Pirates
- OBP: Cervelli (.438)
- ISO: Polanco (.225)
- HR: McCutchen (5)
- R+RBI: Polanco (33)
- wRC+: Polanco (152)
- BSR: Rodriguez (1.3)
- SP K/9: Nicascio (9.67)
- SP BB/9: Cole (2.38)
- SP FIP: Cole (2.76)
- RP K/9: Feliz (12.27)
- RP BB/9: Melancon (1.74)
- RP FIP: Melancon (3.26)
- WAR: Polanco (1.5)
Pitching matchups
K/9, BB/9, 2016 ERA, 2016 FIP, 2016 projected ERA listed for all pitchers
Monday: Jason Hammel, RHP (8.25, 3.38, 0.75, 2.48, 3.84) vs Gerrit Cole, RHP (7.54, 2.38, 2.78, 2.76, 3.15), 6:05 PM CT
Cole has been solid in his four starts this year, but hasn’t really put together a capital A Ace start yet this year. He struck out seven Padres while allowing no runs two starts ago, but only pitched six innings, which is the most he’s pitched in any start this year. He struck out exactly 8 Cubs in all of his regular season starts last season, but the Cubs knocked him out of the Wild Card game before he could get more than four.
Tuesday: Jake Arrieta, RHP (8.00, 2.50, 1.00, 2.85, 2.64) vs Jon Niese, LHP (6.99, 2.86, 5.08, 5.79, 4.38), 6:05 PM CT
Niese has been very homer-prone this season, coughing up seven in five starts. Only the punchless Brewers failed to go deep against him. The Pirates picked him up in a swap of superflouos vets with the Mets in exchange for Neil Walker.
Wedneday: Jon Lester, LHP (8.65, 1.83, 1.83, 3.27, 3.10) vs Juan Nicasio, RHP (9.67, 4.00, 3.33, 3.70, 4.07), 11:35 AM CT
Nicasio has been the big surprise so far in the Pirates rotation. He pitched four terrible seasons on Colorado which look merely lousy when you take Coors Field into account, then was a solid if unspectacular reliever for the Dodgers last season. Unlike most Rockies pitchers, he’s not that strong of a ground ball pitcher, though he does have a slight lean in that direction. He issues a lot of free passes, so this might be a really long game with Lester working the other half of the box score.