Chicago is fighting to hold a wild-card spot down the stretch, Pittsburgh is just playing out the string — and these two wrap up a series at Wrigley Saturday afternoon before either club can look much further ahead.
Neither team has a starter locked in yet for Saturday, but pitching has defined both of these seasons regardless of who ends up on the mound. Pittsburgh's staff was supposed to run through Paul Skenes and largely still does, even in a year where the results haven't matched the hype — he was working through the roughest stretch of his career through mid-August, walking at least 4 batters in 3 of 4 starts after issuing that many in only 5 of his first 77 outings combined. It's a strange problem for a reigning Cy Young winner, and it's part of why a team with his talent at the top of the rotation is still sitting under .500.
Both injury boards are worth a look before this one. Pittsburgh has been without Mitch Keller since early August (60-day IL, arm injury) and is also missing 2 relievers in Kirby Yates and Isaac Mattson, who was only just recalled from Triple-A. Chicago's bullpen picture has gotten thinner too — the club designated lefty Hoby Milner in late August, and he's since caught on with Seattle, leaving Craig Counsell working with an even shorter relief corps for a team that was already leaning hard on its defense to cover for it.
There's also a series opener still to be played before this one — these two meet again Friday, and how that game shakes out for either bullpen will shape what's available by Saturday's matinee. Pittsburgh still has a White Sox series to get through first as well, so the roster both clubs run out here could look a little different than it does today.
The stakes sit almost entirely on Chicago's side. The Cubs have spent early September within a game of the top NL wild-card spot, a cushion of several games over the field chasing them, even while nine games back of Milwaukee in the NL Central. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, is just trying to be a nuisance — a club that's beaten the Angels and White Sox recently but is still 5 games under .500 with a decade-long postseason drought hanging over the whole season.
None of that changes the day-to-day for either team right now. Chicago still needs length from whoever starts and whoever follows out of the pen, and Pittsburgh still needs the version of Skenes — or whoever else takes the ball — that made him a Cy Young winner in the first place. Both are questions this series should start to answer.
