8-26-24 – By Ethan Smith
The last full Pirates series of August in the year 2024 is upon us and yes, it feels as if this season has flown by.
The ups and downs of the 2024 campaign have been wild ones for sure, especially against division rivals, and the Pirates are coming off a series win versus the Cincinnati Reds thanks to a Yasmani Grandal walk-off homer, and now, they welcome another NL Central foe, the Chicago Cubs.
Pittsburgh has seen Chicago seven times so far this year, finishing 4-3 in those seven games up to this point, with a series win in a four-game series in Wrigley Field and a series loss at PNC Park during Paul Skenes debut weekend.
Both of these teams have changed since they last saw each other on May 19 at Wrigley, seeing as the draft, the trade deadline and many other factors have come into play for the roster construction between these two life-long rivals, so lets take a look at what you’ll see and what you can expect over the next three days as the Pirates and Cubbies square off.
8/26
Cubs – Jameson Taillon (R) – 8-8, 126.2 IP, 3.77 ERA, 101 Ks/26 walks, 1.20 WHIP
Pirates – Mitch Keller (R) – 11-7, 148.1 IP, 3.76 ERA, 134 Ks/40 walks, 1.21 WHIP
8/27
Cubs – Justin Steele (L) – 4-5, 123.0 IP, 3.07 ERA, 125 Ks/32 walks, 1.07 WHIP
Pirates – TBD, but likely Jared Jones first start after IL stint
8/28
Cubs – Kyle Hendricks (R) – 3-10, 101.0 IP, 6.33 ERA, 67 Ks/29 walks, 1.45 WHIP
Pirates – Paul Skenes (R) – 8-2, 104.0 IP, 2.16 ERA, 130 Ks/25 walks, 0.94 WHIP
Cubs: Ian Happ
Ian Happ has always been a thorn in the Pirates side since arriving to Chicago, and the Pittsburgh native has been hot as of late for the Cubs, slashing .283/.389/.630/1.019 with four homers, four doubles, seven RBIs and eight free passes over the last 15 days.
Pair those numbers with two multi-hit performances in the Cubs series win over Miami, and Happ enters this series on a heater, and with a .307 career batting average in 102 games versus Pittsburgh, expect Happ to continue to be a menace versus the Buccos.
Pirates: Oneil Cruz
Oneil Cruz is one of the pillars of the Pirates offense, and he’s shown that over the past month, slashing .323/.400/.548/.948 with three homers, 12 RBIs and eight stolen bags over the past 30 days.
Although the strikeout total is one per day with 30 over the past 30 days, Cruz has found his stroke versus both right handers and left handers this year, and with Taillon, Steele and Hendricks going for the Cubs, this is a favorable series for the StatCast love child.
Cubs: Issac Parades
Issac Parades was apart of one of the more intriguing moves we saw at the deadline this year, as the Rays sent him to Chicago for Christopher Morel.
Since arriving in Chicago though, things haven’t been great for Parades, who is slashing .135/.217/.243/.460 with two homers and nine RBIs in August, numbers the Cubs would like to see improve before season’s end.
Parades also struggles with right-handers, hitting just .212 against them compared to .274 versus left-handers, and with three righties on the bump for the Pirates, that doesn’t exactly spell a turnaround just yet for Parades.
Pirates: Bryan Reynolds
It hasn’t been talked about a ton, but Bryan Reynolds has not been good in the month of August.
Reynolds, who has a plus-.900 OPS in June and July, has just a .634 OPS in August. Pair that with just one homer this month, and he’s on pace for the lowest OPS and home run number in a month all season.
The last 15 days have been more brutal, as his OPS sits at a .459, so for Reynolds, who is the spark for the offense, you’d hope he turns it around before season’s end.
Key Injuries
For Chicago, their injuries are practically all related to pitching, as Ben Brown, Luke Little, Hayden Wesneski, Jordan Wicks, Colton Brewer, Yency Almonte and Adbert Alzolay are all on the IL, with Wesneski being the only one not on the 60-day, so pitching depth has been a struggle for Chicago, who also just let go of Hector Neris not too long ago.
For Pittsburgh, Joey Bart heads to the IL, which means Henry Davis is back. Hunter Strattion is done for the year, as is Marco Gonzales, but Andrew McCutchen, Nick Gonzales and Ryan Borucki could, and are likely to, all play at some point for the season ends. Jared Jones is also slated to make his first start off the IL sometime this week, while others like Ke’Bryan Hayes nurse injuries.
Things to Look For
The Pirates offense versus the Cubs pitching.
Pittsburgh has arguably their three best guys going in this series, if Jared Jones starts of course, but any series you have Mitch Keller and Paul Skenes pitching, you expect to win.
Usually though, it comes down to what the offense can do, and in a series where you avoid Shota Imanaga and Javier Assad, you feel pretty good, but the offense has to attack the likes of Taillon, Steele and Hendricks early and often to give their strong starters early leads and give the bullpen, which has been better as of late, some breathing room.
As mentioned earlier, I think Oneil Cruz will have a big series, but watch others like Bryan De La Cruz, who had a strong series versus Cincinnati, as well as Rowdy Tellez as contributors that could push the Pirates over the edge versus Chicago.
Steel City Pirates 