It’s Shark Week, and the Shark is starting tonight for the Cubs. Against the Astros. There’s no way this doesn’t go well.
Josh Vitters indeed gets a start against a righty, as Dale Sveum suggested he would – and he bats second. Interesting. I think it’s fair to wonder whether Sveum hopes that will get Vitters more fastballs, as Sveum believes Vitters to be an excellent fastball hitter. Damning with faint praise? We’ll see.
On the other side at third, we’ll get a look at former Cubs farmhand Marwin Gonzalez, whom the Astros plucked from the Cubs – by way of the Red Sox – in the Rule 5 Draft.
Game Info
Houston Astros (38-78) at Chicago Cubs (44-69), 7:05pm CT on CSN+.
Game Thread and Series Preview
The Game Thread lives here. You should participate in the madness. And, of course, for those who aren’t into message board-style game threads, please feel free to use the comments on this post for your in-game commentary/outbursts.
The Series Preview for this series lives here.
Starting Pitchers
Armando Galarraga (0-2, 4.70 ERA, 6.94 FIP)
versus
Jeff Samardzija (7-10, 4.21 ERA, 3.56 FIP)
Houston Astros Lineup
1. Tyler Greene, SS
2. Jose Altuve, 2B
3. Brett Wallace, 1B
4. Steve Pearce, RF
5. Justin Maxwell, CF
6. Jason Castro, C
7. Marwin Gonzalez, 3B
8. Fernando Martinez, LF
9. Armando Galarraga, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup
1. David DeJesus, RF
2. Josh Vitters, 3B
3. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
4. Alfonso Soriano, LF
5. Starlin Castro, SS
6. Welington Castillo, C
7. Brett Jackson, CF
8. Darwin Barney, 2B
9. Jeff Samardzija, P
I would be fairly shocked if this game gets played today. It has been raining pretty steadily for the last 18 hours or so.
I heard it was supposed to taper off in time for the game.
Does anyone know how many players can be on 60 day dl on a 40 man roster?
I have a good feeling about this game. Shark should have a field day with those losers.
Don’t get to say that very often.
So why is Vitters batting 2nd and Castro still batting 5th?
Its gotta be to make a point about his OBP.
Not to say that VItters has proven that he is a good OBP guy, more to say that Castro has proven he’s not. I think until he won’t be hitting second any time soon. personally.
My biggest question is why does barney slide out of the number 2, and take over valbuenas normal spot, just because vitters is in the lineup?
Could simply be that Sveum wants to see how Castillo does higher in the order.
Whatever the answer is, I’m glad it happened. Barney is not a #2 hitter.
These games are extremely important. We have to battle hard to gain ground on the Astros. Sweep plz.
Gain ground? Unless you’re talking about the race for the #1 draft pick, in which case I say “bring on the extra international and draft money by bombing the rest of the year!”
It would be glorious if the Astros swept us.
What’s the story on Soriano lately? Is he likely to be traded by the waiver deadline?
Unfortunately, Soriano isn’t helping his cause much right now.. hitting .169 with 1 HR in August. And only 5 HRs since July 1.. but I’d guess they waived him already..
My opinion.. he’ll be on the roster the rest of the year.
Make that 2 HRs in August
And I’d hope any interested GM would be able to see past a rough 10 games
If you cherry-picked 10 game stretches, then you could find some of those for all of the best players. After all, his 0.189 BA is less than 3 hits short of his 2012 BA and 4 hits short of the 11 he’d need for a 0.300 BA in August.
Anyone else think the A-ball All-Stars could take 5 of 7 from this Astros team?
Dempster gets plastered by yankees
Depends on your definition of plastered. If by plastered you mean giving up 8 runs in 6+ innings then, yes, he was plastered.
Think he’s wishing he was pitching in Turner Field right about now?
+1
Glad you mentioned Shark’s FIP, Brett – 26th best in all of baseball. Yet, after his next bad start, you know we’ll see several comments like, “looks like the Shark rotation experiment is over” or “Its obvious Shark isnt a starter, stick his a$$ back in the ‘pen”.
I know the Astros are bad, but I really like what we are seeing from Smardzija right now this deep in the season. He seemed to go through a little dead arm period, but he’s got #2 stuff…hell, maybe even #1 stuff
Yes, the Stro’s are awful, but other teams play them too. Shark has been a great addition to the rotation so far.
Cubs win!!