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The Pittsburgh Pirates are short road favorites to complete the series sweep over the Chicago White Sox ahead of Thursday's 7:40 p.m. ET first pitch at Rate Field.

My top Pirates vs. White Sox predictions and MLB picks call for Pittsburgh to take the series finale tonight, with the total also going Over the number on Sept. 10.

Who will win Pirates vs White Sox today: Pirates moneyline (51%)

For help understanding probabilities, see our odds calculator.

Pittsburgh Pirates righty Jared Jones has found a groove, boasting a solid 3.65 xERA and 3.11 xFIP across his past four starts.

The Pirates also continue to show off at the plate with a seventh-ranked wOBA and second-ranked xwOBA over the past two weeks. Pittsburgh also ranks second in the majors in wOBA against right-handed pitchers.

It’s a different story for the Chicago White Sox. They rank 25th and 20th, respectively, in the two metrics during the same stretch and are projected to hand the ball to righty Erick Fedde for bulk innings behind opener Hagen Smith.

This will be Smith’s first career start, and Fedde sports a 4.68 xERA and 5.11 xFIP across his past eight appearances while allowing a healthy 38.6% squared-up contact rate and 16.4% blast-contact rate.

I recommend playing the Pirates moneyline to 52.4%.

COVERS INTEL: The Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen xERA and xFIP both rank higher than the Chicago White Sox in the second half, which will be a key factor in a potentially close series finale.

Pirates vs White Sox Over/Under pick: Over 7.5 (53.1%)

While I’m anticipating the Pirates doing the heavy lifting to send this total past the number, the White Sox have also played to the Over in nine of their last 13 home games (+4.40 Units / 30% ROI).

Chicago ranks eighth in ISO against righties for the season, and the AL Central leaders will want to leave it all on the field in an attempt to avoid the series sweep.

The White Sox also average 4.9 runs per game at home compared to 4.5 on the road, so I expect Chicago to chip in offensively at Rate Field.

This Over 7.5 is playable to 54.5%.

Pirates vs White Sox home run prediction: Oneil Cruz (16.7%)

Despite an excellent 15-for-43 run at the dish (.824 OPS), Pirates star Oneil Cruz hasn’t left the yard across his past 11 games.

Cruz is sporting a rock-solid 18.8% blast-contact rate and 40.0% hard-hit rate during the stretch, and his high-end .206 ISO for the year doesn't have drastic splits (.175 against lefties and .222 against righties).

I like the idea of statistical correction kicking in and Cruz homering tonight.

Pirates vs White Sox market trends

Here is how trusted Polymarket traders are dealing tonight's Pirates vs. White Sox matchup, with heavy volume on the Chicago hosts.

Pirates vs White Sox weather

The forecast calls for cloudy skies early before clearing later in the evening, comfortable temperatures around 73F, and a light 5-7 mph northeast wind blowing left to right.

Pirates vs White Sox odds

• Moneyline: Pirates 52.4% | White Sox 52.4%
• Run line: Pirates -1.5 (39.2%) | White Sox +1.5 (64.3%)
• Over/Under: Over 8 (52.4%) | Under 8 (52.4%)

Pirates vs White Sox trend

Pittsburgh has won eight of its last 10 games (+5.10 Units / 35% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Pirates vs. White Sox.

How to watch Pirates vs White Sox and game info

Pirates vs White Sox latest injuries

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Two games into their September stop at Yankee Stadium, the Rockies have scored four runs, struck out 24 times and lost twice.

The Yankees won the opener 5–3 before taking Game 2 by a 6–1 score.

Tonight gives the Rockies (55–90) one more chance to salvage a game against the Yankees (83–62), avoid the sweep and carry a bit of momentum with them to Detroit.

Ryan Feltner will make his 22nd start in a season that has gone poorly. He is 5–9 with a 5.91 ERA and 1.58 WHIP across 106.2 innings.

Feltner leads with his four-seam fastball and varies his secondary mix from there. He works primarily with the slider and changeup against lefties, then turns to the slider, sinker and sweeper against righties. Lefties have produced a .293/.378/.507 line against him this season, while righties are at .275/.326/.522.

The changeup has been Feltner’s best pitch, producing 41 of his 81 strikeouts, including all five in his last start against St. Louis. Feltner throws it 28% of the time against lefties, compared with just 6% against righties. Against New York’s lefty-heavy lineup, there may be a path for Feltner if he can get ahead of hitters and continue to let the changeup finish things off.

Meanwhile, things won’t be getting any easier for the Rockies’ offense. After being handled by Cam Schlittler and Will Warren in the first two games, Colorado will face Max Fried in the finale.

The left-hander is 4–4 with a 2.73 ERA and 0.99 WHIP. Since returning from injury in July, he has been even better, posting a 1.85 ERA across 34.0 innings with 37 strikeouts.

Fried also works with a deep arsenal. His sinker is the foundation against lefties, while righties see a balanced combination of cutters, four-seamers, changeups, curveballs, sinkers and sweepers.

Unlike Feltner, Fried has dominated hitters from both sides of the plate. Lefties have managed a .152/.218/.177 line against him, while righties are hitting .213/.280/.292. Still, the Rockies will trot out seven batters from the right side against Fried.

Aaron Judge is not in the lineup after playing in the first two games following his return from the injured list. New York is 38–22 in games Judge has played this season and 45–40 without him.

Even without Judge, the Rockies still have plenty to solve on both sides of the ball. Can Feltner ride his changeup through New York’s lefty-heavy lineup while the offense finds a way to get to Fried?

The details…

First pitch: 5:05 p.m. MDT

TV: Rockies.TV

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

Yankees SB Nation:Pinstripe Alley

Lineups:

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks! 

Willing to sit through nine innings of San Francisco Giants baseball?

Forget paying for tickets — they’ll pay you to go to their games.

The team stinks so much that they’re offering to reimburse attendees for simply honoring the tickets they’ve already bought for the rest of the season.

An email went out to season-ticket holders on Aug. 27, according to SF Gate, offering 15% back off the ticket price in credits for next season to any of them who still showed up for their three-game series this week against the Cardinals or later this month against the Twins.

It’s been such a brutal season that the Giants hadn’t swept a series all year until St. Louis came to town and they took all three games. Each win upped the rebate to 20% off per ticket. 

The offer doesn’t apply to upcoming weekend series against the division-rival Padres and Dodgers, which are expected to be well-attended. But it’s proven to be increasingly difficult to convince fans to come to watch a team that has been 20 or more games below .500 since Aug. 9.

“This final stretch is giving a number of new players the opportunity to take the field at the Major League level – some for the very first time,” the email reads, per SF Gate. “We want them to experience Oracle Park at its best: filled with passionate Giants fans who bring the energy to the ballpark.”

A scrappy group led by first-year manager Tony Vitello has actually shown some fight recently with almost all their underperforming stars either traded away or injured, culminating in the unlikely sweep of the Cardinals. They’ve staved off what would be only the second 100-loss finish in franchise history, but clearly in the eyes of many fans, the season was lost long ago.

The email tells fans that the organization “shares your disappointment” but wanted to give an “added incentive” to come out for the remaining weeknight games, per SF Gate.

The offer only applies to season tickets that were already purchased, which count toward official attendance figures whether the ticket is used or not.

Despite a horrific start to the year, attendance held steady through the All-Star break, even up a notch over the last year and on pace to draw 3 million total for the first time since 2018.

They became the second team eliminated from playoff contention earlier this week, but they still rank eighth in the majors in average attendance — 35,256 per game.

But the gate has plummeted since they traded away six players off their major-league roster at the Aug. 3 trade deadline, failing to draw 30,000 fans for nine out of their past 16 home games. They hadn’t drawn fewer than 32,000 for any of their first 56 home dates.

Even the most passionate fanbase’s patience can run thin.

And Giants fans have been tested this season by more than just the dreadful play on the field, which is still on pace to produce the team’s worst record since 2017. 

The organization alienated a large segment of its fans and drew a public reprimand from the commissioner’s office for its handling of the Pride Night fiasco. One of their top offseason additions injured himself in a drunken scooter accident. Their beloved former catcher hired to put together their roster has made a series of questionable calls and was embarrassed by a hot mic moment from a producer at their flagship radio station saying that he “sucks, man.”

It’s made for one of the most miserable seasons in recent memory at the corner of Third and King.

Now, at least, some fans can get compensated for their troubles.

It really just feels like each series the Atlanta Braves have been in lately has been like them leaving a snake pit for a lion’s den only to realize that they’ve stepped into a piranha’s pond and escaped that just to find out that the dry land was quicksand. “I don’t know how much more battle-tested we need to be,” quipped Walt Weiss when he was asked by the media during Tuesday’s pregame press conference about the tough schedule that the Braves have been dealing with as of late — and still have to navigate going forward.

Indeed, one of the takeaways from this patch is that the Braves will have faced some of the toughest teams that baseball currently has to offer once they eventually reach the Postseason and they should be more-than-ready to handle whatever’s in front of them. With that being said, the Braves had to deal with another serious test in the form of the Tampa Bay Rays and once the smoke cleared, it was less about acing the test and more like simply doing enough to pass the test. Did Atlanta manage that? Let’s get into it.

Tuesday, September 8

Rays 7, Braves 1

This one was competitive for two innings, as the Braves matched Junior Caminero’s two-out dinger off of AJ Smith-Shawver in the first inning with a run of their own in the bottom half of that frame. The deadlock didn’t last long at all, as the Rays made the third inning a long one for Smith-Shawver. AJSS was one out away from potentially putting two outs on the board against the Rays in that inning. Instead, Liam Hicks sent one flying into the Georgia night sky for a two-run shot. Smith-Shawver was one out away from keeping it at 3-1 before Victor Mesa Jr. hit a bouncer that eluded the glove of Ozzie Albies and dribbled into the infield for an RBI single that made it 4-1.

AJ Smith-Shawver was only able to make it through 3.1 innings with those four runs allowed, but credit is due to Brent Suter for going 3.2 innings while only giving up a single run while he was out there. Elieser Hernández wasn’t as fortunate, as he surrendered two runs across his two innings of work and then got the DFA treatment once the next morning rolled around. It really felt like the Rays were either dinking and dunking or hitting moonshots, there was no in-between in this one.

Meanwhile, a nasty trend for the Braves was emerging while they were on the mound. It’s not particularly shocking that Freddy Peralta ended up going six innings with just one run allowed since he’d done pretty well in two previous starts against Atlanta with the Mets. It wasn’t shocking either to see the Rays bullpen clamp down on the Braves they did on Tuesday, either. What was shocking is that the Braves came out of this game with 11 batted balls that were at least 95-mph that ended up turning into outs. Folks, that’s tough!

Wednesday, September 9

Rays 7, Braves 2

This felt like a near-carbon copy of the first game. The two teams were tied after the first inning, the Rays pulled away shortly after the first inning, Atlanta’s starting pitcher didn’t get deep and the offense was left holding the bag despite hitting the ball hard all night. Indeed, that’s the path that both of these teams doubled back on on this particular night as the Rays once again cruised to another big win. A home run from Victor Mesa Jr., a double steal and then old friend Jorge Mateo slapping one into the outfield off the end of his bat led to three runs in the second for Tampa Bay.

The Rays added three more in the fourth in a way that would’ve had Atlanta fuming considering how their batted ball luck was turning. With two men on and nobody out, Cedric Mullins plated an RBI in similar fashion to how Jorge Mateo did it — he put the bat out there on a ball that was outside of the zone and got rewarded for it. Richie Palacios poked one into the outfield in left to bring home another one of his Rays teammates and then Yandy Díaz’s sacrifice fly made it a 6-0 lead as Reynaldo López’s head was probably spinning.

Drake Baldwin homered off of Griffin Jax in the fourth inning in order to ensure that the Braves didn’t get shut out and then Matt Olson continued to work his way out of his current slump with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-2 in the sixth but by then, the damage had been done — and frustratingly so. Once again, the Braves hit the ball hard all night and received little reward for it. This time, Atlanta saw 12 batted balls that were at least 95-mph end up finding Tampa Bay’s leather instead of the grass. The final out of the game was a 99-mph bullet from Mauricio Dubón that was seemingly magnetized to Richie Palacios’s glove. Dubón used his knee to turn his bat into two separate and large toothpicks in response and the Braves ended up taking an incredibly frustrating series loss.

Thursday, September 10

Braves 3, Rays 1

Martín Pérez and Nick Martinez were in complete and total control in this one for the seven innings in which they participated. Pérez bounced back from a tough start against the Phillies by going out and tossing seven shutout innings against the Rays in this one. Considering how the first two games of this series had gone, Pérez was basically in a situation where he had to come up big and he did so in crucial fashion. Atlanta needed to stabilize things as far as their pitching was concerned and for what feels like the umpteenth time this season, Pérez came through in a big moment for the Braves.

As far as the bats went, today appeared to be the day when Atlanta’s batted ball luck finally turned around. This time, the Braves only had three batted balls of 95-mph or faster end up turning into outs. That’s not to say that things were easy-peasy for Atlanta, though — Nick Martinez was absolutely dominant and cruised through six innings while only having to deal with two baserunners throughout. After retiring Ronald Acuña Jr. in to start the seventh, Martinez had only thrown 68 pitches on the day and seemed well poised to get even deeper into the game.

Instead, the Rays pulled a Rays and manager Kevin Cash went out there and pulled Martinez so that they could let the bullpen carry them for the rest of the way. It worked out for the rest of the seventh inning — it did not go well for them in the eighth. Kevin Kelly ran into a pinch-hitting Ozzie Albies in that inning and Ozzie promptly hit one 99.2-mph towards right field and it didn’t land inside the glove of a Rays fielder. Austin Riley then came through with a ground ball that split two of Tampa’s defenders on the right side of the infield for the breakthrough RBI single. Mike Yastrzemski followed that up with a pinch-hit ground-rule double and then Ha-Seong Kim continued his revival with a big two-RBI single that gave the Braves yet another big bottom-of-the-eighth inning in front of the fans at Truist Park.

Victor Mesa Jr. homered off of Raisel Iglesias with one out in the ninth and then a walk from Chandler Simpson meant that Tampa Bay had two outs to play with with the tying run at home plate. They didn’t get any further than that and the Braves had officially salvaged the series.

Well, that certainly wasn’t ideal but the Braves did just enough to make sure that the status quo from the start of this series in the NL East remained the same. Thanks to some help from another first-place club in the American League, the Braves will be heading into their huge weekend home series against the Philadelphia Phillies with the same four-game lead that they had when they left Philadelphia on Monday evening. Crucially, that’s three games lopped off the calendar where the Braves maintained their position instead of ceding ground. As long as Atlanta can keep it steady (and a series win this weekend would be huge), that’ll do the trick for the Braves as far as the division is concerned.

With that being said, it’s looking more and more like the Braves are going to be destined to facing someone in the Wild Card Round. Both the Brewers and the Dodgers have started to really put pedal to the medal with the Brewers essentially wrapping up the NL Central and the Dodgers taking care of business with their soft schedule. Past the obvious ramifications of the bye being out of reach, this essentially ensures that this intense ride ain’t stoppin’ until the Braves either lift the trophy or get sent home for the Fall and Winter. Strap in, folks. The water will only get choppier from here.

Hopefully the hard-hit balls that Atlanta collected during this series will start to trend more towards being successful rather than turning into the many, many frustrating outs that we had to witness. That’s just about the only solace you can take from this series if you’re a Braves fan and concerned about the offense. They’re hitting the ball hard — the ball just has to find some green or some seats instead of leather. Now would be a perfect time for that luck to turn and it would also be a great moment for the pitching staff to continue holding the opposition at bay. There’s still time for everything to click and if it does, the Braves will be able to navigate this month safely and be in good shape heading into October. We’ll see what happens.

Ahead of Thursday's home series finale against the Colorado Rockies, Yankees manager Aaron Boone provided an update on injured second basemanJazz Chisholm Jr. and outlined expectations for infielder Anthony Volpe following his recall to the MLB roster from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Boone began with a clear, concise update on Chisholm's health.

"With Jazz, it will be seven to ten days of no baseball activity," he stated. "We'll see as he gets ramped up, he does have a history of being a fast healer if you look at his injury history, but we'll listen to the thumb and see how he recovers."

The skipper then moved onto Volpe, talking about how he's met the challenge of being sent down on Aug. 7 to play second base at Triple-A during a crucial stretch of the Bronx Bombers' season. 

"He's done a great job down in Triple-A working on a lot of things," said Boone. "Obviously, adding the positional flexibility to his game, he's done a really great job on the defensive side, and he's been great with the bat for a while."

Volpe, who is batting ninth in the order and playing second base for the Yankees against the Rockies on Thursday night, has slashed a stellar .284/.381/.642 with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, clobbering 10 homers and tallying 21 RBI in just 28 games.

Boone, accordingly, praised the former Yanks top prospect and natural shortstop, who has shown resilience in the face of adversity and uncertainty as of late. 

He has thoroughly earned this late-season opportunity to prove he has what it takes to be an everyday player in New York, albeit at a new position. After all, surging rookie George Lombard Jr. is continuing to make the six-hole his own, mashing a grand slam on Wednesday against Colorado.

"We're excited to get him back up here," the manager professed. "All the reports from player development, he's been excellent turning double plays from second base, and we're not surprised, since he's the type of athlete that should take to the position well."

"Over the past several weeks, we've seen really big results, and hopefully that starts to translate up here as well."

Of course, playing in New York means dealing with the intense spotlight of a rabid fanbase in a massive media market, and not everyone is built to handle that pressure cooker. In this regard, Volpe has the backing of his manager.

"I've never felt like the pressure has gotten to Anthony," Boone opined. "He's done a great job working and playing with his nose down, for him it's about continuing to develop his skills and getting to that next level as a player overall."

Finally, with the 25th anniversary of 9/11 on Friday, the Yankees are set to host their crosstown rival Mets in a three-game weekend set, and Boone understands the multi-faceted importance of the occasion.

"It's going to be an incredible, very emotional scene," he concluded. "There's going to be people in the building with strong ties, very personal connections to the tragedy that took place."

"Having two New York teams playing, during this time of the year, with important games on the line, it'll be an environment with some joy, some sorrow, and some reflection."

Game on the line.

Shohei Ohtani steps in the batter’s box and decides this is the moment for him to ignore what could happen to his injured right arm or left knee.

He lets it rip – and he barrels one up.

The Dodgers go on to win the game, maybe even the series.

But that will be it.

That one at-bat will constitute the entirety of Ohtani’s postseason production.

Think the outlook is overly pessimistic?

Consider this: The scenario represents the absolute best-case scenario.

The Dodgers can’t expect anything more than that. How can they after manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani will be placed on the 15-day injured list before the Dodgers open their three-game series against the Miami Marlins on Friday?

The injuries responsible for making Ohtani look the way he looked in recent weeks aren’t the kinds of problems that will heal in a couple of weeks. 

Roberts conceded as much.

“Is it going to be 100%?” Roberts said. “Probably not.”

Ohtani shared similar thoughts earlier in the week, as he emphasized the importance of making adjustments that could make him offensively productive while being physically limited.

“With some creativity,” Ohtani said in Japanese,’ I think I can make up for what’s not right.”

If his health wouldn’t substantially improve over the final three weeks of the regular season, he figured, he might as well use that time to learn how to play injured.

His body kept him from doing even that.

The one game he played in the last week – an 0-for-3 performance in a win over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday – set him back enough to where he couldn’t take at-bats he felt he needed to be competitive in the playoffs.

This wasn’t a case of his condition not improving. This was a case of his conditioning worsening, perhaps even substantially.

At this point, it would be completely unrealistic to think Ohtani could be a consistent source of offense for the Dodgers this year.

An imaginary threat that scares other teams?

Maybe.

A silver bullet who could change the game with one swing?

Less likely, but not impossible.

What Ohtani won’t do is homer one night, collect three hits the next, and drive in three runs the game after that. Doesn’t matter that he won’t be pitching.

Ohtani is six for his last 52. Since Aug. 5, he’s homered just once outside of Coors Field in high-altitude Denver.

General manager Brandon Gomes tried to downplay the severity of his injuries last week by making the laughable claim about there being no evidence that his slump was the result of his health.

Over the next seven games, Ohtani played just once.

Should the Dodgers have placed Ohtani on the injured list last week rather than let him play on Monday after sitting out four games?

Probably.

Position players have to spend a minimum of 10 days on the injured list, but Ohtani has to be sidelined for a minimum of 15 days because he is officially classified by the league as a two-way player.

Ohtani’s IL stint can be backdated to Tuesday, which means he could be activated at the earliest with five games remaining in the regular season. By placing him on the IL after he played in obvious pain on Sept. 2, the Dodgers could have made him eligible to return five days earlier.

The Dodgers’ failure to act cost Ohtani as many as four games – games in which he could have tested the adjustments he said he had to make.

But that’s almost beside the point.

By that stage of the season, there wasn’t a right answer. The Dodgers had already screwed up. Ohtani was damaged, and he and the team were doing no more than searching for the least-worst choice in a series of undesirable options.

Sometime after Ohtani made what turned out to be his final start as a pitcher on July 3, the Dodgers crossed the invisible line between involving their star player in decisions about playing time and allowing him to destroy his body.

The overwhelming desire to assist his return to the mound blinded them to what almost everyone else could see: Ohtani was falling apart.

Until Ohtani was scratched from a scheduled one-inning start in Detroit on Aug. 30, the Dodgers envisioned him contributing as a pitcher.

Now, they will be lucky to get anything out of him as a hitter.

Lane Thomas was a late scratch in the Braves lineup today. We have heard why from Walt Weiss.

I’m not a doctor, but as I understand it an intercostal strain is slightly different from an oblique strain. An intercostal strain affects the muscles under the ribs. An oblique strain affects the sides of the abdomen. In any case, it’s an Injured List visit for Thomas. He will join Bryce Elder as the second Braves player placed there this week.

In case you missed it, Mauricio Dubon pulled away from the plate with an oblique issue in today’s game. According to reports, Walt said postgame that he felt something in his back and it wasn’t a big deal. We might see DaShawn Keirsey Jr. on the active roster for the Philadelphia series tomorrow, but we don’t know at this point. I’m not sure what the Braves will do if that Dubon goes down. We will see more of Ha-Seong Kim, I’m sure. But I’ll take two hits a game like today while he’s gone.

Oblique injuries are going around. Y’all be safe out there.