Paul Skenes faces off with Freddy Peralta and expectations are far higher for this Mets team than the Pirates this year. With that said, there's been a lot of love for the Pirates this offseason thanks to some of the moves they've made in the lineup, and they'll need the help to take down the 2025 NL Wins leader today. The F5 is -130 for the Pirates, yet the full game has them as the underdog. The bullpen for Pittsburgh may be thin but they do at least have a few solid arms and everyone is fresh and ready to go. I have the Pirates ML odds closer to -110, leaving us some value here.

It's expected to be 63° at Citi Field Thursday morning with the wind blowing out to center field at 13.9 miles per hour and a 10% chance of precipitation. Opening Day baseball in New York. It's the Pirates versus the Mets with Aces dueling: Paul Skenes against Freddy Peralta. In Skenes' last two appearances against the Mets, he allowed 3 runs combined, with both games going over. The Pirates have won the last four meetings with the Mets, with the last three going over. The Bucs have a couple of new offensive players on the team this year, with Ryan O'Hearn, Marcell Ozuna, and Brandon Lowe. Let's make every Skenes start count while he's still in Pittsburgh. The reality of baseball. Pirates to win.