ARCHIVE April 11, 2026
April 11, 2026 · NL Cent

Pittsburgh Pirates vs Chicago Cubs

April 11, 2026Wrigley FieldPartly Cloudy 48°F · 7 mph, In From RF
AWAY
Pittsburgh Pirates
9-5
4
vs
HOME
Chicago Cubs
6-8
3

Starting pitchers

AWAY · PIT
Braxton Ashcraft
Braxton Ashcraft
IP 5
HOME · CHC
Edward Cabrera
Edward Cabrera
IP 5

Lineups

AWAY · PIT
  1. 1 Oneil Cruz CF
  2. 2 Brandon Lowe 2B
  3. 3 Bryan Reynolds LF
  4. 4 Ryan O'Hearn RF
  5. 5 Marcell Ozuna DH
  6. 6 Nick Yorke 3B
  7. 7 Spencer Horwitz 1B
  8. 8 Konnor Griffin SS
  9. 9 Henry Davis C
HOME · CHC
  1. 1 Nico Hoerner 2B
  2. 2 Michael Busch 1B
  3. 3 Alex Bregman 3B
  4. 4 Ian Happ LF
  5. 5 Moisés Ballesteros DH
  6. 6 Pete Crow-Armstrong CF
  7. 7 Miguel Amaya C
  8. 8 Michael Conforto RF
  9. 9 Dansby Swanson SS

Box score

  1234567891011 R
PIT 01200000001 4
CHC 00001010100 3

Manager comparison

Both managers grade C- / C entering this matchup.

AWAY · PIT
Don Kelly
C- Lineup 2.3 R Bunts 0.3 R IBBs 0.8 R
HOME · CHC
Craig Counsell
C Lineup 1.7 R Bunts 0.4 R IBBs 0.3 R

Recent form

AWAY · PIT
5-5 W2 +1 run diff
WWLWWWLLLL
HOME · CHC
10-0 W10 +27 run diff
WWWWWWWWWW

Season series: 2-1 with PIT listed first across 3 prior meetings.

Tactical analysis

RunsLeft separates manager decisions from player execution from game variance. Each card below is the same three-number framework that drives the share cards on the SPA replay page.

AWAY · Pittsburgh Pirates
  • Manager lineup cost +0.00 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.52 vs actual lineup 3.52
  • Player execution +0.48 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 3.52 projection by 0.48 (scored 4)
  • Game variance +0.48 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Lowe 0-for-4 batting 2nd

HOME · Chicago Cubs
  • Manager lineup cost +0.06 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.85 vs actual lineup 3.79
  • Player execution −0.79 R/G Players fell 0.79 short of the lineup's 3.79 projection (scored 3)
  • Game variance −0.85 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Happ 0-for-5 batting 4th

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 3.5 – 3.9 — actual was 4 – 3.

Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. Tactical analysis comes from a per-game Monte Carlo: 10,000 simulated games against the opposing starter's ERA, both for the actual lineup the manager wrote and for the optimal arrangement of those nine players. The three numbers — manager cost, player execution, game variance — separate which part of the result was the lineup, the players, or the dice.

Read the full methodology.