It’s Wednesday, 7:40 PM EDT, and the Pittsburgh Pirates are checking into Rate Field in Chicago, Illinois, for a regular-season tilt available on MLB.TV. The South Siders come home with a 43-28 record that reeks of comfort zone confidence, while Pittsburgh lingers at 33-39 on the road, which is basically the baseball equivalent of being perpetually late to work. The visitors are also missing Ryan O'Hearn and Kirby Yates to the injured list, so expect the lineup to be a mix of trying its best and wondering why the bag is still full.
Chicago throws Davis Martin, whose 4.13 ERA is a perfect companion to the Pirates' 4.18 team ERA, creating a pitching duel that feels less like a battle and more like two coworkers arguing about whose coffee is colder. While Pittsburgh bats .252 to Chicago’s .237, the White Sox carry more power, giving them enough slack to survive their own struggles. Drop a pick in the comments on StreakChat and let us know if you trust Martin to keep these Pirates from making everything worse.