Cubs vs. Giants Predictions
Two struggling teams clash when the Chicago Cubs visit the San Francisco Giants in what should be an intriguing game on Friday.
Here’s a complete preview, including early MLB picks.
Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants
Friday, July 29, 2022 – 10:15 PM EDT at Oracle Park
What to Expect From These Teams
The Giants won the NL West and had the best regular season record in the majors last year but they were out of the postseason early and they haven’t been the same since. Most of their roster didn’t change but these are not those 2021 Giants.
This team has been a disaster in the last few weeks and at press time they’re 16.5 games behind the Dodgers and six games behind the Padres so making the postseason again will be an uphill battle. The Giants have to win games like the one on Sunday against the Cubs in order to get back on track and keep their hopes to go far this season alive.
These are not the 2016 Cubs that broke their curse and won the World Series, gone are Bryant, Rizzo, Baez, Lester and most of their stars from those days and their rebuilding has been rough, to say the least.
Still, the Giants can’t overlook them on Friday… There’s still some talent on this team. The Cubs will turn to Marcus Stroman (2-5, 4.38 ERA, 1.15 WHIP) for this game while the Giants will give the ball to Alex Cobb (3-4, 4.26 ERA, 1.33 WHIP).
Stroman vs. Cobb
As mentioned above, the Cubs are going with Marcus Stroman (3.72 FIP) while the Giants respond with Alex Cobb (2.94 FIP). The Cubs are 3-9 in Stroman’s 12 starts, costing bettors 4.6 units of profit. The Giants, on the other hand, are down 7.1 units on a 6-9 record in Cobb’s 15 starts.
Marcus Stroman gave up one earned run on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks over six innings to get a no-decision in a 6-2 road win against the Phillies on Saturday. Stroman is 0-1 with a 3.46 ERA and 1.31 WHIP in career starts against the Giants.
Alex Cobb allowed four earned runs on eight hits with six strikeouts and two walks over 5 2/3 innings to get a no-decision in a 7-4 road loss against the Dodgers on Tuesday. Cobb is 0-0 with a 1.50 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in one career start against the Cubs.
How to Bet This Game
Over at FiveThirtyEight, they already have the Giants at -117 based on our calculations (they suggest the Giants will win this game 54 percent of the time) while the Cubs are at +117.
The betting odds for this game have the Cubs at +125, which means there’s some value on their moneyline at the best sportsbooks but the Under might be the way to go.
Friday’s weather report calls for low clouds and temperatures between 12° and 14° with 98 percent cloud cover and 0.0 mm precipitation and the 18 mph winds are expected to blow from right field to center field.
Chicago’s projected lineup has six batters with a strikeout rate above 21 percent, just two batters with a Weighted on-Base Average (wOBA) above .340 and two batters with Isolated Power (ISO) above .185 while San Francisco’s projected lineup has just three batters with a Weighted on-Base Average (wOBA) above .340 and five batters with a strikeout rate above 21 percent.
And in case Stroman has a short outing, the Cubs have an excellent bullpen. At press time, their relievers rank third in Win Probability Added (WPA) from the bullpen at 4.41. Take the Under on Friday night and consider a sprinkle on the Cubs moneyline, as Stroman has a 1.26 ERA and 0.92 WHIP in his last three starts!
MLB Pick: Under 7.5 (-105) at BetOnline