Matt Swarmer, the Cubs’ rookie, has 3 starts under his belt. Two of them were impressive, and then he met up with the Yankees, and gave up 6 earned runs in five innings, allowing, count’em, 6 solo home runs. Swarmer now has given up 9 home runs in 3 games. It will be interesting to see if the rookie can regroup. He can’t look for much support from the Cubs’ bullpen today. They have staggered to an ERA of over ten in their last 10 games

The Cubs face one of the best today in the Padres’ Joe Musgrove. With an ERA of 1.15 in his last 4 starts, he has been all things this year, pitching for effectiveness, consistency and length (20 innings pitched/ L3 starts). The Padres bullpen, good as usual, is clipping along with an ERA of just 2.17 in their last 10 games.

While the Padres aren’t usually the hardest hitting team, they have been tearing it up lately, climbing into the top ten in offense with an OPS of .789, just slightly ahead of the Cubs. On the verge of a sweep, they have outscored the Cubs 35 to 11 in the first three games of this series.

The Cubs are 0-9. Musgrove and the Padres show no sign of slowing down and are a heavy favorite today. Take them on the run line at - 1 1/2. They should be fine for the extra runs.