Mets vs. Pirates prediction and odds for Friday, June 9 (Old Man Rich will stop the bleeding)

What’s worse: getting swept by your rival and the team leading your division and losing two of the three games in heartbreaking fashion, or losing two of three to the worst team in the history of baseball to surrender the lead in your division? Well, the New York Mets did the former this week and the Pittsburgh Pirates the latter. Those two teams will meet at PNC Park for a weekend series as the 30-33 Mets have lost six straight and the 32-29 Pirates are coming off back-to-back losses to the A’s at home.

For Game 1 of this series the Mets will go with Tylor Megill to try and end the losing skid while Pittsburgh hands the ball to Rich Hill. Megill is 5-3 in 12 starts with a 4.40 ERA and Hill comes into his 13th start of the season at 5-5 with a 4.41 ERA.

Let’s take a look at the odds for tonight’s National League matchup in Pittsburgh.

There may not be two teams in the MLB right now that feel worse heading into the weekend than these two. So, at this point, it’s a matter of who can stop the bleeding first, and Rich Hill might be the man who is up to that task. Last time out, Hill was going into the start knowing that his bullpen was completely taxed from the previous two nights, so it was paramount that he went deep into the game to give them a chance. After taking the first two from St. Louis it looked like Pittsburgh was bound to surrender Game 3, then Hill had maybe his best start of the year. 

Hill went 6.2 in that one allowing just one run and working around four hits and three walks. He also had six strikeouts and the only run was scored on a solo homer from Willson Contreras. Hill is the quintessential wiley vet on the mound who just knows how to get outs and that’s somebody to trust in big spots like this. That’s especially true against the Mets now that Pete Alonso is on the IL. 

New York is 19th in OPS against lefties this year and Alonso leads the team with an .888 OPS and six home runs. Without his bat in the lineup the Mets were able to score 10 against the Braves and Spencer Strider, but I think that will wear off today. 

It’s scary to back either of these teams, I mean how do you trust the Pirates after losing two of three to Oakland? Well, those losses were because of poor starts from Mitch Keller and Roansy Contreras, their offense is still good enough and if Hill has a strong start then the Bucs might just keep pace with Milwaukee in the NL Central. 

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change