Chicago Cubs at San Francisco Giants Preview and Odds
Giants On Major Skid, Can They Recoup?
In the soft National League, pretty much every team — besides the Marlins and Rockies — has a chance at competing for one of the three Wild Card spots. But if the San Francisco Giants, currently on a five-game losing streak, continue to drop games at such a rapid rate, they too could fall out of the playoff picture. They’ll try to end their skid with a four-game series this week against the Chicago Cubs, who are also trying to find their footing. The Cubs vs Giants scores and odds have the Cubs as -112 moneyline favorites in Monday’s opener and at+150 to win by two or more runs on the runline. The total is eight runs.
The big issue for San Francisco is the rotation, which is completely up in the air right now other than Jordan Hicks (Thursday’s starter) and Logan Webb (who pitched on Sunday and will miss this series). The Giants’ staff has been among the worst in baseball, largely due to injuries forcing San Francisco to use call-ups for spot starts or even employ bullpen games. No wonder the MLB betting lines like the Cubs.
Things haven’t been much for the Cubs who dropped two of three to the red-hot Mets this weekend. Chicago’s problem is scoring, or rather, not scoring, runs. Chicago was held to two runs in Sunday’s loss and one run in Friday’s loss. Outside of last week’s series against these Giants — in which the Cubs won two of three — Chicago’s offense has been pretty quiet for most of June.
Chicago Cubs vs San Francisco Giants 
📍Location: Oracle Park; San Francisco, California
⏰Day/Time:
Cubs’ Lineup Has Been Sleepy
While Chicago’s bats have been able to get on base in June, driving runners in has been a completely different story. The Cubs vs Giants scores and odds reflect how the Cubs have been one of baseball’s worst teams with runners in scoring position since the end of April, starkly contrasting from Chicago’s proficiency in clutch situations during the early part of the season when Craig Counsell’s club looked like a candidate to win the NL Central. Those days are long gone.
While Christopher Morel keeps bashing home runs despite a sub-100 OPS+, Chicago doesn’t have many guys who are pushing base runners across the plate. That problem was starkly apparent in both losses of the Mets series as the Cubs had their chances to score and just couldn’t come through in the big spots. Getting on base doesn’t matter if those hits and walks aren’t converted into actual runs.
The good thing for the Cubs is that, as noted above, the San Francisco pitching staff is in dire straights right now. It’s going to be very difficult for the Giants to piece together 27 innings of outs before Hicks takes the mound on Thursday. The MLB stats on the Giants’ (depth) pitching pieces do not bode well for Bob Melvin’s club which is desperate to snap this streak.
Giants’ Pitching Is A Mess
As noted above, the Cubs vs Giants scores and odds reflect how unclear San Francisco’s pitching plan is, and, even if it were clear, none of the options available are particularly promising. So, while the Cubs’ offense has been bad for a while, it feels like this is a matchup where Chicago can potentially right the ship. It’s looking like San Francisco might need to raid its Triple-A club just to have enough arms to make it through this series.
The Giants could also turn to multiple bullpen games to try and piece things together. Pretty much any permutation of pitching San Francisco chooses to utilize will benefit Chicago in the first three games. Also, it’s not like the Cubs have major problems reaching safely; the issue is the rather fluky hitting with running in the scoring position. Those numbers can change on a dime without rhyme or reason so there’s plenty of reason to believe that the worm can start to turn for Chicago beginning tonight.
Go With Chicago
If you’re making MLB picks and parlays, take the Cubs to win straight-up at -112. The Giants still haven’t announced who’s starting for them tonight, Tuesday, or Wednesday which makes it even easier to expect Chicago to find a way to score enough runs. If you’re feeling particularly confident in the Cubs (or pessimistic in the Giants), you can take them on the runline at +150 for really good value.
The over eight runs (-105) even with Cubs’ ace Justin Steele on the mound is a good bet too considering San Francisco’s question marks in the rotation. It’s always tricky when a starter faces the same team in consecutive starts as Steele will against the Giants — he tossed 6 2/3 strong innings against them on Tuesday — so look for the Giants to tag him for a few runs.
Cubs vs Giants Odds
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