Pittsburgh Pirates at Cincinnati Reds September 20 Betting Preview

The Pittsburgh Pirates will travel to Cincinnati to face the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark on Monday night at 6:40 pm EST. The Reds (77-72) are in the wild card race and will be looking to overtake the Cardinals who have a 3 game lead on the Reds in the wild card.

They will have a good chance against the Pirates (56-92) who are at the bottom of the National League Central division. The Pirates will be looking to rebuild for next season which should give the Reds the opportunity to take the series and go for a sweep.

Odds

The Reds are a slight favorite in this game against the Pirates. They are 1.5 run favorites with the odds of -105. The Pirates stand at +1.5 with odds of -115 to cover the spread. The over/under is 9 total runs with odds of -105 to bet the over and -115 to bet the under. The Moneyline for the Reds to win is -220 and +180 for the Pirates to win.

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Pitching Matchup

Vladimir Guitierrez will take the mound for the Reds as he is 9-6 this season with a 4.25 ERA and 82 strikeouts. Dillion Peters is the expected starter for the Pirates with a record of 1-2 with an ERA of 2.66 and 20 strikeouts.

Guitierrez and Peters faced off against each other in the last series between the Reds and Pirates last week. Guiterrez did not have a great pitching day. He only went 3.2 innings giving up 5 hits and 4 runs. He picked up the loss in that game.

Peters, on the other hand, pitched very well going 5 innings giving up 5 hits but no earned runs as he picked up his only win of the year in that game.

Wild Card Race

The Reds are running out of time to make a push to take the last wild card spot in the National League. They have lost 8 series in a row including their last series against the Dodgers. They have had one of the easiest remaining schedules in the MLB for the majority of the back half of the season.

There is still time for them to make up ground, but they need to start in this series against the Pirates. They will be facing the bottom of the NL East in the Washington Nationals later in the week so the Reds should be able to win the majority of their games this week to put them in a great position with only 1 week left of the season after this one.

Keys to a Reds Victory

The Reds’ series against the Dodgers was hard-fought and showed signs of confidence and competitive baseball. They will need to take this competitiveness into this Pirates’ series who are much less dangerous than the Dodgers.

I expect to see a baseball team hungry for a sweep on Monday night, but as most Cincinnati Reds fans know, you never know what you can expect out of them. You will always love them, but they never make it easy!