![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Joey-Votto-reds.jpg\")
<\/a>Cincinnati has won four of its last five games, including a 8-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs as -137 road favorites Sunday, while going OVER the betting total for a second consecutive contest.\u00a0 The Reds have been getting great offensive production out of catcher Devin Mesoraco, who enters the series with a career-high nine-game hitting streak.\u00a0 First baseman Joey Votto is also hitting .400 over the team\u2019s last eight games\u2014resulting in a 5-3 record over that span.\u00a0 Cincinnati is 7-14 as road underdogs of +125 to +150 the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n
Reds starting pitcher Mike Leake (2-1, 2.95 ERA) has led the club to back-to-back wins, including a 7-5 home victory over the Pirates last time out, as he allowed three runs and five hits over 6.2 innings of work.\u00a0 The right-hander is 1-1 with a 2.45 ERA in two road outings, with opposing hitters batting .180 against him.\u00a0 In 16 lifetime appearances versus Pittsburgh, Leake has compiled a 6-3 record and 3.28 ERA.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh has dropped its last three games, including a 3-2 setback to the Milwaukee Brewers as -126 home favorites Sunday, while going UNDER the betting total for the first time in four affairs.\u00a0 The Pirates starting rotation has put together a 4.27 ERA in the early going, which ranks 12th in the NL.\u00a0 The bullpen continues to be a strength, with setup man Mark Melancon not allowing a home run in his last 73 frames.\u00a0 Pittsburgh is 35-20 as home favorites of -125 to -150 since the start of the 2012 campaign.<\/p>\n
Pirates starting pitcher Francisco Liriano (0-3, 3.96 ERA) has picked up a loss in his last three efforts, including a 4-0 road defeat to the Reds last time out, as he gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings of work.\u00a0 The left-hander went 1-0 with a 2.31 ERA in four official outings in Grapefruit League action, but has struggled to reach his maximum velocity in the early going.\u00a0 Liriano is 0-4 with a 3.73 ERA in five career regular season outings versus Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Sports bettors will likely back the Reds due to their 10-4 record in Leake\u2019s last 14 efforts versus division opponents.Make sure to check out our Major League Baseball picks<\/a> all season long and get the most up-to-date betting odds at Bookmaker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Cincinnati Reds (8-10) and Pittsburgh Pirates (8-11) will open up a National League Central series Monday night, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET at PNC Park Cincinnati Reds vs. Pittsburgh Pirates\u00a0 Cincinnati has won four of its last five games, including a 8-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs as -137 road […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[78,919,2402,1503,25,428,1519],"class_list":["post-33883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-francisco-liriano","tag-joey-votto","tag-mike-leake","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pnc-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33884,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33883\/revisions\/33884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}