The Baltimore Orioles (43-25) and Chicago Cubs (31-37) will kick off a three-game weekend series on Friday, June 16. First pitch is set for 2:20 p.m. ET at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. The O’s will start recently promoted lefty Cole Irvin (1-2, 7.85 ERA), while the Cubs turn to veteran righty Kyle Hendricks (1-2, 3.09) after his sensational start last weekend.
Baltimore is the -115 moneyline favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook, making Chicago -105 underdogs with the over/under set at eight.
Orioles-Cubs picks: Friday, June 16
Injury report
Orioles
Out: RP Austin Voth (elbow), 1B Ryan Mountcastle (illness), RP Mychal Givens (shoulder), OF Cedric Mullins (groin), RP Dillon Tate (forearm), SP John Means (elbow)
Cubs
Out: RP Brandon Hughes (knee), 1B Edwin Rios (groin), SP Justin Steele (forearm), RP Nick Burdi (abdomen), RP Brad Boxberger (forearm), SP Adrian Sampson (knee), RP Ethan Roberts (elbow), RP Codi Heuer (elbow)
Starting pitchers
Cole Irvin vs. Kyle Hendricks
Irvin will make his fifth start and sixth appearance in his first season in Baltimore. The numbers look terrible, largely thanks to a dismal April that saw him sent down to Triple-A, but he threw the ball well in his last time out, giving up one run over 5.1 innings with five strikeouts in a win over the Kansas City Royals.
Hendricks will make his fifth start of the season in year 10 with the Cubs. (Yes, we’re all very old.) The soft-tossing righty coming off a fantastic performance in his last start, throwing eight scoreless innings with one hit and a walk in a victory over the San Francisco Giants.
Over/Under pick
Irvin has poor season-long numbers in a small sample size, but all of those struggles came in April. He’s far better than that ERA suggests after finishing last season with a 3.98 ERA over 30 starts with the Oakland Athletics. Chicago’s offense has been slumping for weeks now, and with Hendricks throwing the ball well on the other side, I’ll take the under here.
Pick: Under 8
Moneyline pick
The pitching matchup is fairly even heading into this contest, but the Orioles have the better lineup. Baltimore is scoring the sixth-most runs per game (5.0) this season, and that’ll be enough to get it done to open this series.
Pick: Orioles