6-12-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
The Pirates have been riding high after a 6-3 home-stand and winning 13 of their last 21 games. The Cubs, despite leading the NL Central by a sizable margin, have stumbled lately as they have lost 4 of their last 6 games and haven’t taken a series against a team currently in playoff contention since narrowly sweeping a 2-game set against the Dodgers on 4/22-23.
That’s not to say the Cubs are a bad team – they just haven’t played many teams that are actually good as they have played just 28 games against teams who would make playoffs if the season ended today and only won 12 of those matchups – a .429 winning percentage.
On the year, however, the Cubs are led by statistically the third best offense by wRC+ (118) while the Pirates have had the 2nd worst offense at a wRC+ of 81 – although, things have shifted more lately as, since May 21st, the Pirates have a 104 wRC+ and .735 OPS while the Cubs are only slightly ahead with a 108 wRC+ and .739 OPS in that time.
6/12
Pirates: Andrew Heaney (L) 3-4, 3.24 ERA, 72.1 IP, 52 Ks, 24 walks, 1.15 WHIP
Cubs: Jameson Taillon 6-3, 3.54 ERA 76.1 IP, 58 Ks, 14 walks, 0.94 WHIP
6/13
Pirates: Paul Skenes 4-6, 1.88 ERA, 91 IP, 92 Ks, 20 walks, 0.84 WHIP
Cubs: Cade Horton 3-1, 4.11 ERA, 30.2 IP, 25 Ks, 7 walks, 1.30 WHIP
6/14
Pirates: Mike Burrows 1-1, 5.00 ERA, 18 IP, 17 Ks, 7 walks, 1.39 WHIP
Cubs: Matt Boyd (L) 5-3, 2.89 ERA, 74.2 IP, 70 Ks, 18 walks, 1.23 WHIP
6/15
Pirates: Mitch Keller 1-9, 4.15 ERA, 82.1 IP, 65 Ks, 20 walks, 1.28 WHIP
Cubs: Colin Rea 4-2, 3.92 ERA, 62 IP, 48 Ks, 17 walks, 1.37 WHIP
Pirates: The Bullpen – The rotation has been great but this relief corps has been on another level this month. Isaac Mattson: 3 innings, 3 Ks, zero baserunners. Caleb Ferguson: 3 innings, 2 hits, 2 walks and 4 Ks. David Bednar hasn’t allowed a run in his last 8 appearances and has allowed just 2 hits with 9 strikeouts and zero walks. Across the board, Don Kelly is finding ways to pull the right strings and get the guys in place to produce.
Cubs: Michael Busch – Busch has quietly been one of the best hitters for Chicago this season. While Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong steal the spotlight, Busch has been up there with both of them as he has a 149 OPS+ on the season (10th best in the NL) and over the past two weeks has slashed .343/.425/.800 with 4 home runs and 10 RBI in that stretch.
Pirates: Spencer Horwitz – A lot of people have been ragging on the trade that brought Horwitz to the Pirates this past offseason. A delayed start due to a nagging wrist injury just to come out and post a .594 OPS over his first 22 games are not a great opening to what this front office hoped would be a successful piece to fill the hole at first base. Horwitz could still turn things around but batting .170 against fastballs and .176 against breaking balls is not going to cut it.
Cubs: Carson Kelly – Kelly had a surprising strong start to the season as he posted a 1.347 OPS over his first 17 games through the end of April but has quickly fallen off since then with a .620 OPS in May and a .250 OPS so far in June. Some players get warmer with the weather but, although he managed 2 hits in the finale of the Phillies series, Kelly has been struggling lately.
Pirates: Colin Holderman, Jared Jones, Justin Lawrence, Tim Mayza, Dauri Moreta, Kohan Oviedo, Joey Bart, Endy Rodriguez, Enmanuel Valdez
Cubs: Javier Assad, Porter Hodge, Shota Imanaga, Eli Morgan, Justin Steele, Miguel Amaya
Notes
- While the Pirates bullpen has been in a good place lately, the Cubs bullpen has somehow been even better with a 0.93 ERA since May 15th as they’ve gone 8-2 with 5 saves over 87 innings in that time span.
- Starting pitching has been an issue for the Cubs as injuries to Imanaga and Steele have resulted in a 4.00 season ERA from the rotation and 4.57 over the past five weeks. In contrast, the Pirates have had the best rotational ERA in MLB with a 2.69 ERA and third most innings (177) as well.
Steel City Pirates 