Los Angeles at Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh has won four of its last five games and comes home with real momentum after taking two of three from San Francisco this week. The Angels are trending the opposite direction, dropping four of their last five outside one lopsided win over the Yankees, and the bullpen was the problem again in Wednesday's finale against New York, a five-run relief meltdown that turned a winnable game into a blowout loss. Jared Jones isn't overpowering at 4.83 this season, but he gets a home mound against a Los Angeles club that's a miserable 23-43 on the road and 53-87 overall, well behind Pittsburgh's 69-72. Ryan Johnson has trimmed his ERA to 5.47 over his last few turns, but he's still pitching in front of a relief corps that keeps handing away close games, and that's the deeper issue for a team already this far underwater. The gap between these two rosters is real, and Pittsburgh's bullpen has been the more trustworthy group all series long. Back the Pirates on the moneyline tonight.