Chicago at Pittsburgh

Why are the Cubs favored here? They have lost four of their last five games and they start Carlos Zambrano. Normally that's a good thing for Chicago but not right now. Zambrano has now lost five-straight starts drawing boos even from his home crowd. Since nailing a $91.5 million contract extension, his ERA is a sky-high 9.57! When facing the Pirates, he's 0-4 this season with a 6.26 ERA. Chicago scores 4.3 per game on the road while Pittsburgh gets 4.6 per game at home. Right now Pittsburgh's offense is hot (5.4 runs per game over their last seven). Chicago is 15-20 this season on the road as a favorite. We'll back the hotter home team against the struggling Zambrano.