ASA NL Central *GAME OF THE WEEK* Tests 22-2!
- Handicapper
- ASA, Inc.
- League
- MLB
- Competition
- Chicago Cubs vs Pittsburgh Pirates
- Release Date
- 05/26/2026 07:22 AM
- Event Date
- 05/26/2026 06:40 PM
- Bet Type
- Moneyline
- Pick
-
Pittsburgh Pirates -125
(BetOnline)
- Outcome
- Win
- Analysis
- #952 ASA PLAY ON Pittsburgh Pirates -125 over Chicago Cubs, Tuesday at 6:40 PM ET - The Cubs have lost 9 straight games and this is a great spot to fade them. Jordan Wicks is expected to start for Chicago here. He is back from injury and though he pitched a little better in his last few minor league starts he did have as many walks as strikeouts in 2 of the last 3 starts - he walked 6 and struck out 6 in those 2 outings. Prior to those he had B2B starts in which he allowed 6 earned runs in each outing. Keep in mind all of this is against minor league competition. In terms of his work at the MLB level, Wicks worked out of the bullpen in 2025 after back to back seasons working as a starter in 2024 and in his rookie season of 2023. Look for Wicks (5.21 ERA in his MLB career) to struggle here in his first MLB start since 2024. As for the Pirates starter, Braxton Ashcraft, he has a 2.89 ERA in his 10 starts this season and this is after a 2.71 ERA in 26 appearances (8 starts) last year in his rookie season. Ashcraft has been fantastic this month and is working deep into his starts too. He has averaged 7 innings per start in May plus he has held opponents to 1 earned run or less in 3 of his 4 starts this month! Ashcraft will surely take advantage of a Cubs team that is 2-13 in their last 15 games and note that, other than one high-scoring win and one high-scoring loss, Chicago has scored an average of only 1.6 runs in the other 13 games! While the Pirates have not been scoring big either, at least they are averaging 4 runs in their last 7 games and they also have won 4 of their last 6 games. This is a great spot for them to explode against Wicks and get a big win over the slumping Cubs as they send them to their 10th straight loss. Considering all of the above, we will lay the very reasonable money line price Tuesday with Pittsburgh
