The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds are playing live on the MLB schedule on Tuesday and the NL Central rivals are battling at Great American Ball Park starting up at 1:10 pm ET and comes with Travis Wood taking on All-Star Johnny Cueto in the pitching duel and has both teams playing well as they matchup in a doubleheader, with the second game coming later in this five game series.
The Reds and Pirates have been playing very well during the recent stretch of the season, with both teams having the best record in the NL since June 11 and now the Reds are coming in looking to continue their success against Chicago. The team has won all but nine of the 38 games they have played in this latest stretch against Chicago and now they can try and catch up to the Brewers at the top of the division.
The Cubs just pulled off a huge trade for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel to the A's and they got a top prospect in Addison Russell in return and now they are poised to be great in the future potentially. Russell joins players like Kris Bryant, Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo with the organization and now the team is building up for the future, adding another top prospect to the mix for Theo Epstein as he tries to build a winner in Chi-town.
Cueto has been pitching lights out this season and he comes in with an ERA under 2.00 as he tries to shut down the Cubbies and this could be a nice game for the Reds to get rolling with two to play on the schedule. Cueto has gone 4-0 in his last stretch against the Cubs in seven games and now he will try and add another win against Wood, who comes in after getting beaten up a bit when the Cubs played in Boston.
The Cubs come into the game after a loss to the Reds and Mike Leake got the win for the team and now the Cubs come in ranked near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories, including runs scored, batting average and on base percentage. The pitching has been very solid but that was also because of Jeff and now the team could be missing a bit in the rotation after trading two starters. The team is in last in the NL central and they are behind the Reds, who have moved up into wild card contention and now it will be a tough battle between the Cardinals and Pirates behind the Brewers, who have the biggest division lead in the NL.
Check here for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds live coverage from MLB.
