If you ask Pirates starting pitcher Jordan Lyles for his favorite month, he likely won’t say July, as his teams are 0-18 in his past 18 starts in the month of July. He will look to buck that trend along with a bunch of career post All-Star Game struggles against the Reds on Monday.

After the Pirates were 8-1 in Lyles’ first nine starts of the season, they now have lost eight straight. Lyles has a 9.58 ERA and opponents are hitting .350 off of him in this stretch.

He has also allowed three or more earned runs in seven of his eight starts and has a lifetime 6.22 ERA after the All-Star break.

The Reds have fared far better in Sonny Gray’s recent starts, going 9-3 in his last 12. Gray has allowed more than three earned runs in a start once since April and has a 2.82 ERA with opponents hitting .213 and striking out 11 times per nine innings off of him in this 12-game stretch.

The Pirates as a collective have also hit the skids since the All-Star break, going 2-14 including a weekend sweep by the Mets at Citi Field. They have scored the third-fewest runs per game of any team in the big leagues in that span to compound their issues.

With the Reds ranking in the top eight in runs per game since the break and Lyles’ past eight starts resulting in a loss of two or more runs for the Pirates, this is a good opportunity to cash a ticket and mitigate juice on the play with a run-line wager.

The Play: Reds on the run line (-1 ¹/₂ runs, Even).