Chicago Cubs vs. Baltimore Orioles Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 6/8/2022

Time: 7:05 p.m. ET

Venue: Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD

Where to watch: Marquee Sports Network, MASN 2

DraftKings: Cubs -135, Orioles +115

BetMGM: Cubs -135, Orioles +110

Caesars: Cubs -135, Orioles +115

Cubs: 23-33

Orioles: 24-33

I'm not going to lie. I had the Baltimore Orioles winning Tuesday's series opener against the Chicago Cubs, but I was hesitant to make a play on it given we didn't know the starter for Chicago heading in. Turns out that it was Keegan Thompson, the Cubs' best starter/reliever going in.

The Orioles brought the young pitcher back to Earth by shellacking him for seven earned runs in three innings, and Baltimore went on to win 9-3 and do so in a rather easy way.

Baltimore had only nine hits, but hit five home runs to put this game out of reach rather quickly. Cedric Mullins, Trey Mancini and Ryan Mountcastle were among those O's batters to go yard, which gave enough cushion to Kyle Bradish in his 4.2 innings of work while striking out five.

He, of course -- because baseball scoring is absolutely weird -- did not get the win. Bryan Baker with his 1.1 innings of service improved to 2-3 on the season.

Funny enough, as we transition back to the homers for a second, the biggest and best blast we saw was Austin Hays hitting a 464-foot bomb, only the fourth longest to ever be hit at Camden Yards since Statcast began tracking such long shots in 2015.

“I've never sniffed the second deck before,” Hays said as he smiled roudning second base, probably wondering if he actually did that. “I don’t know if there was a gust of wind or what happened on that one, but all the stars aligned for me to get one up there.”

That ball hit the second deck, and you have to think that he and Manny Machado are the only Orioles players to hit a ball that far in the past seven years. That's kind of wild.

But it is another sign of how improved the Orioles have been this year. They're not sniffing the playoffs right now, but again, they're only a handful of games below .500. Given where things were trending last year, Baltimore will gladly take such an improvement.

"The ball was really carrying tonight, not to take anything away from the homers," Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. "There were a lot of deep flyouts. We've seen it here before. Balls carry here and we hit five tonight. It was good to see."

But if there's been any silver lining for the Cubs as of late, despite the plethora of losing, it's been rookie Christopher Morel continuing to swing a hot bat. The rookie reached base safely for the 21st consecutive game when he homered on the game's first pitch.

"That's the spark he brings because he's ready to go when he gets in the box, he's ready to play baseball, he's excited to be in there and he's ready to hit at all times," Chicago manager David Ross said about Morel. "He's done a nice job swinging at strikes."

The Cubs will try to bounce back with Marcus Stroman taking the mound, while the Orioles will counter with Jordan Lyles, who has had an up-and-down campaign to this point.

Stroman has not been at the level I think people expected him to be when coming to Chicago. Part of that has been due to run support, but his ERA is 5.32 for a reason. If the Orioles are feeling good about how they hit the ball on Tuesday, things should look even better on Wednesday. Orioles win 7-4

Cubs are 61-75 on the road in the past three seasons.

Cubs are 34-41 against AL East teams since 1996.

Orioles are 22-25 in inter-league games over the past three seasons.

Orioles are 12-13 this season as a home underdog.

Cubs:
Christopher Morel (R) CF
Willson Contreras (R) C
Ian Happ (S) LF
Frank Schwindel (R) 1B
Patrick Wisdom (R) 3B
Rafael Ortega (L) DH
Nico Hoerner (R) SS
Jason Heyward (L) RF
Nick Madrigal (R) 2B
SP - Marcus Stroman

Orioles:
Austin Hays (R) LF
Trey Mancini (R) DH
Anthony Santander (S) RF
Ryan Mountcastle (R) 1B
Ramon Urias (R) 3B
Adley Rutschman (S) C
Rougned Odor (L) 2B
Ryan McKenna (R) CF
Jorge Mateo (R) SS
SP - Jordan Lyles

Batting average: Wilson Contreras -- .277

Home runs: Patrick Wisdom -- 12

RBI: Patrick Wisdom -- 31

Wins: Keegan Thompson -- 6

ERA: Keegan Thompson -- 3.17

Batting average: Trey Mancini -- .303

Home runs: Anthony Santander -- 9

RBI: Anthony Santander -- 30

Wins: Cionel Perez -- 4

ERA: Jordan Lyles -- 4.50