Yankees at Pirates prediction: Odds, expert picks, starting pitchers, betting trends, and stats for April 4

The Yankees (4-2) are in Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates (2-5) Friday in Game 1 of their weekend series.

Max Fried is slated to take the mound for New York against Mitch Keller for Pittsburgh

Thursday night Aaron Judge cracked his fifth home run of the season to lead New York to a 9-7 win over the Diamondbacks and snap a two-game losing streak in the process.

After scoring one run in the first two games of their series against Tampa, the Bucs got the offense going somewhat and they salvaged the final game of the three-game set, winning 4-2. Oneil Cruz went deep and drove in a pair of runs for the Pirates.

Lets dive into the matchup and find a sweat or two.

We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch tipoff, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.

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Game details & how to watch Yankees at Pirates

• Date: Friday, April 4, 2025
• Time: 4:12PM EST
• Site: PNC Park
• City: Pittsburgh, PA
• Network/Streaming: YES, SNP 360

Never miss a second of the action and stay up-to-date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day MLB schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game with every out.

Odds for the Yankees at the Pirates

The latest odds as of Thursday:

• Moneyline: Yankees (-152), Pirates (+128)
• Spread:  Yankees -1.5
• Total: 8.0 runs

Probable starting pitchers for Yankees at Pirates

• Pitching matchup for April 4, 2025: Max Fried vs. Mitch Keller
  
  • Yankees: Max Fried (0-0, 3.86 ERA)
    Last outing: 3/29 vs. Milwaukee - 4.2 IP, 2ER, 7H, 2BB, 4Ks
  • Pirates: Mitch Keller (1-0, 1.50 ERA)
    Last outing: 3/28 at Miami - 6 IP, 1ER, 5H, 1BB, 4Ks

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Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Yankees at Pirates

• Aaron Judge is hitting .417 with 5 HRs, 15 RBIs and he has scored 11 runs
• Anthony Volpe got his first hit of the season that was not a home run Thursday against Arizona
• Pittsburgh is just 2-5 on the Run Line this season
• Pittsburgh Game Totals have cashed to the UNDER in 5 of their 7 games

If you’re looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports!

Expert picks & predictions for Friday’s game between the Yankees and the Pirates

Rotoworld Best Bet

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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts.

Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.

Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Friday's game between the Yankees and the Pirates:

• Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the New York Yankees on the Moneyline.
• Spread: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play ATS on the Yankees -1.5.
• Total: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the over on the Game Total of 8.0.

Want even more MLB best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert MLB Predictions page from NBC

Follow our experts on socials to keep up with all the latest content from the staff:

• Jay Croucher (@croucherJD)
• Drew Dinsick (@whale_capper)
• Vaughn Dalzell (@VmoneySports)
• Brad Thomas (@MrBradThomas)