White Sox vs. Cubs prediction and odds for Tuesday, August 15 (Cross-Town Rivalry)

Tonight, the Chicago White Sox will be on the road, but still in Chicago. They’ll begin a two-game set at Wrigley Field with the Chicago Cubs tonight. The Cubs are in a much better spot than their friends from the southside. At 61-57 the Cubs are second in the NL Central while the 47-72 White Sox are fourth in the AL Central.

Touki Toussaint will go for the White Sox in Game 1 of the cross-town rivalry. Toussaint is 1-5 with a 4.27 ERA in 11 games and will be opposed by 4-6 Kyle Hendricks who has a 3.96 ERA in 15 starts. 

The White Sox were swept by a different NL Central opponent this weekend and they’re underdogs in Game 1 against the Cubs tonight.

The Cubs have been one of the better teams in baseball for a while now. They’ve lost some steam, but won their weekend series against the Blue Jays. Over the past 30 days they have the most wins in baseball at 18-8 and are second to the Braves in runs scored over that time. They also have the second best team OPS in that period and should be able to score runs off Toussaint.

Toussaint has a 15.9% walk rate this season with 47 strikeouts in 46.1 innings. That’s a good strikeout rate, but a ridiculously high walk rate which is in the bottom 1% of all pitchers in baseball. This season the Cubs are hitting .268 with runners on base which is sixth in all of baseball.

The Cubs will be able to score in this one, but over the past 30 days they have a team ERA of 4.70, so they’ve had to win a lot of high-scoring games. I think this one could be the same. Kyle Hendricks has a 98th percentile walk rate, so he won't be issuing free passes like Toussaint , but he also has a seventh percentile strikeout rate and 28th percentile xSLG. 

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change