Rockies vs. Pirates prediction and odds for Monday, May 8 (Fade the Pirates Slumping Offense)

It’s getting late in May and the Pittsburgh Pirates still haven’t won a game this month. They’re still 20-15 and by virtue of a parallel Milwaukee losing streak still in first place in the NL Central. Maybe facing the Colorado Rockies, who the Pirates swept in Denver earlier this year, will get them back into the win column.

For Game 1 of this three-game series Pittsburgh will hand the ball to Mitch Keller who is 3-1 with a 3.32 ERA. Kyle Freeland will start for the Rockies. He is 3-3 with a 3.76 ERA.

The Pirates desperately need a win and they’re favorites to get one at home tonight. 

Mitch Keller had a rough start last time out against the Rays, he allowed five runs over five innings in a loss. The thing is, only one of the runs was earned and his defense let him down. He pitched well enough to give his team a chance to win, but the Pirates let him down another way too. Not only could the Bucs not field, they haven’t been able to hit over the past week or so.

Last Saturday in DC, the Pirates scored 16 in the final game of a doubleheader, and since that game they haven’t scored more than two runs in a game. Yesterday, it was a 10-1 loss to the Blue Jays to extend their losing streak to seven. In the past week, which includes six of those seven losses, they have a .525 OPS, only two home runs and are hitting .174. 

For that stretch, only Bryan Reynolds and Connor Joe have an OPS over .700. Even Jack Suwinski who was off to a blistering start to the year has only one hit in 18 at-bats over that stretch, which was a home run. Pittsburgh even called up Miguel Andujar to try and provide some offense and he has a .188 OPS in his five games with the team.

Pittsburgh cannot score and that’s why they haven’t been able to win. I don’t think the offense will be any better, but the pitching should be strong with Mitch Keller, so I’ll take the under. 

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change