{"id":677413,"date":"2026-04-17T06:18:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677413\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T06:18:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:18:59","slug":"new-york-mets-vs-chicago-cubs-prediction-pick-for-mlb-on-friday-4-17-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677413\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Mets vs. Chicago Cubs prediction, pick for MLB on Friday 4\/17\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading151976_e554f3-7c\">Brendan O\u2019Sullivan dives into his pick and prediction for the New York Mets vs. Chicago Cubs game on Friday, April 17.<\/p>\n<p>The Mets and Cubs play begin their three-game series on Friday, April 17.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago is a -136 moneyline favorite, while New York is +113 on <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.draftkings.com\/leagues\/baseball\/mlb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a>. The game total is set at over\/under 10.5 runs.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s get into a pick and prediction for this Mets vs. Cubs game.<\/p>\n<p>Mets vs. Cubs prediction, preview<\/p>\n<p>When will the Mets\u2019 suffering end? The losses keep piling up as they are now on an eight-game losing streak heading into a road series vs. the Cubs. They lost two of three to the Diamondbacks before the Athletics and Dodgers swept them back to back. It\u2019s been as ugly of a start as New York can endure.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the team\u2019s struggles is due to Juan Soto\u2019s IL stint. He injured his calf on April 3 and has been out since. His <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AnthonyDiComo\/status\/2044569288993116262\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">targeted return<\/a> is during the team\u2019s next homestand. Soto is batting .355 across eight games this season.<\/p>\n<p>New York\u2019s problems are far deeper than Soto\u2019s injury. The rest of the lineup has been disappointing, which has led to this eight-game losing streak. It\u2019s not a death sentence for the team\u2019s season\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019s still only April \u2014 but it\u2019s not a good look either.<\/p>\n<p>The pitching hasn\u2019t been memorable either, and Friday\u2019s starter is one of the weaker rotation members recently. Kodai Senga has shown flashes of excellence, but he\u2019s struggled this season. Through 14.0 innings and three starts, Senga has allowed 17 hits, 11 earned runs and seven walks, while striking out 19.<\/p>\n<p>The Cubs are just 9-9, which is rather disappointing, too. This team has deep playoff aspirations, and it made a number of moves to bolster the roster. One of which was the Edward Cabrera trade with Miami. The right-hander has been excellent thus far, posting a 1.62 ERA across 16.2 innings. He needs to work on his control, however, as nine walks in three starts is alarming. It\u2019s also limited how far he can pitch in games. The past two outings have been 5.0 and 5.2 innings with 98 and 97 pitches, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Mets vs. Cubs Pick, Best Bet<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t a difficult decision, even with the Cubs playing mediocre baseball this season. When Cabrera is on the mound, Chicago has the advantage in most games. That\u2019s especially so against Senga on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The Mets haven\u2019t been hitting, and it won\u2019t happen in the series opener.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.draftkings.com\/event\/ny-mets-%2540-chi-cubs\/34000476\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Best Bet: Chicago Cubs ML (-136)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendan O\u2019Sullivan dives into his pick and prediction for the New York Mets vs. Chicago Cubs game on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-677413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116418598491584831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}