On Wednesday night I'm backing the Pirates as a small home favorite. It's not very often you see the Dodgers as a dog, which tells you how much respect the books have for Pittsburgh's young ace Paul Skenes. In his 4 starts to date, Skenes has lived up to the hype with a 2.45 ERA and 0.909 WHIP with a staggering 30 K's to 5 BBs in 22 innings of work. I also like that he's facing a Dodgers lineup that isn't exactly crushing the ball right now. LA has scored 5 or more runs just 2 times in their last 8 games. I also like the Pirates' offense to do some work here against Dodgers' starter James Paxton, who has an ugly 5.27 ERA and 1.317 WHIP over his last 3 starts.