Chicago Cubs vs Pittsburgh Pirates Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 05/01/25

The Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates are set to wrap up a 3-game series at PNC Park on Thursday afternoon. The Cubs won the series opener on Tuesday 9-0, but the Pirates were able to pick up a 4-3 win on Wednesday night. Paul Skenes is slated to take the mound for Pittsburgh. After a sensational rookie campaign last season, Skenes leads the league with a 1.75 FIP and 0.796 WHIP so far this season. The 22-year-old faced the Cubs 4 times last season, and posted a strong 2.25 ERA to go along with 30 strikeouts over 20 innings. The LSU product is coming off a dominant outing in which he posted 6.1 shutout innings against the Dodgers and should be able to stymie the Cubs in this one.

Colin Rea will get the start for Chicago. He will face a Pittsburgh offense that doesn’t feature a ton of pop, and ranks 27th in baseball with a .645 OPS. Both Rea and Skenes have done a good job of preventing home runs so far in 2025. Rea has not allowed a home run in 18.2 innings, while Skenes has allowed just 1 long ball in 37.2 innings. All in all, it would be surprising to see both offenses find steady success in this matchup, so I’m going with the Under with confidence.

Cubs vs Pirates prediction: Under 7.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable to -120.

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