Oakland Athletics @ Chicago Cubs - September 17, 2024

As a die-hard Cubs fan, I can’t help but get excited about tonight’s game at Wrigley Field against the Oakland Athletics. The atmosphere is going to be electric as fans decked out in blue and red settle into their seats, and trust me, I’ll be right there with my lucky jersey on! With a recent victory under their belt and playing on home turf, I can confidently say that the Cubs are poised to take this one.

The A’s come into this game with a record of 65-86, having lost three straight games. Their pitcher tonight, Mitch Spence, has had a rough go of it this season with a 7-9 record and an ERA sitting around 4.4. Not exactly stellar numbers if you ask me! Sure, he has some strikeout ability at nearly 7.8 per game, but let’s be real—facing our lineup at Wrigley is no walk in the park. Our boys have been putting up solid numbers lately; averaging around 4.6 runs per game while hitting close to 8.1 times! If we can keep that momentum rolling from our last matchup—a dominating 9-2 win over these same A’s—I think we’re in for another show.

Now let’s talk about our pitcher for the night: he may not have the most impressive win-loss record (2-3), but when you dig deeper into his stats—an ERA hovering around 3.9—it tells me he knows how to limit runs when it counts. With an impressive strikeout rate of over 8 per nine innings, we could see him racking up K’s like it’s nobody’s business tonight against an Oakland lineup that struggles to score consistently.

Sure, both teams have seen the total go OVER recently (especially for Oakland), but I’m feeling pretty good about our chances for staying UNDER this time around given Spence’s struggles paired with our solid pitching performance so far this season at home.

The odds are in favor of us being -141 moneyline favorites as well—and honestly? That sounds just about right considering our current form and previous outings against them. Combine that with Oakland’s lackluster batting stats—they’re only scraping together about 4 runs per game—I think we’ll effectively shut down their offense while maintaining enough firepower on our end to seal the deal again.

All in all, expect another solid performance from our Cubbies as they look to extend their winning streak and make a statement against an A’s team that’s clearly struggling right now. I’ve got my fingers crossed and my lucky jersey ready because tonight feels like it’s going to be another big win for Chicago—Cubs by more than a couple runs!