Chicago at Pittsburgh

It could be the curse of Champions that have gotten the better of the Chicago Cubs to open 2017. They are off to a somewhat pedestrian start at 10-8. Pittsburgh surrounded a sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley with seven losses, but played well over the weekend beating the hot, Yankees two out of three as the offense that was woeful in St. Louis, scoring a grand total of three runs, got back on track. The Cubs followed a four-game losing streak by winning four straight, but fell yesterday at Cincinnati, 7-5. The Cubs' pitching has been struggling having allowed 51 runs in their last eight games, or 6.4 runs per contest. And right now they are playing under their expected level. Pittsburgh off the sweep earlier in Wrigley has to be feeling like they can beat this team. Make the play on Pittsburgh.