NEWSLETTER
The beauty of winning the first two games of a four-game series is that you’ve got two tries to win it. It didn’t happen yesterday with Tyler Chatwood on the mound. Maybe it’ll happen today.
Of course, Jose Quintana will need to pitch a lot better than he has lately. Indeed, in three of his last four starts, Quintana has allowed 5 or more earned runs. He really has got the command issues out of the way, but it just hasn’t all come together for him yet. For what it’s worth, he hasn’t actually pitched against the Pirates this season, and they are tied for 16th in wRC+ against lefties.
Starting opposite Quintana today is Jameson Taillon. Taillon, 26, is having a really solid season where his results (3.66 ERA) are finally matching his peripherals (3.47 FIP) – last season they were nearly a run higher. Taillon faced the Cubs a few weeks ago and allowed just 3 earned runs over 6.2 IP. Hopefully, they learned something from that one and are prepared to do a bit more damage.
Win today, win the series. Let’s go.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (71-51) at Pittsburgh Pirates (62-62) – Sunday, August 19th at 12:35 CT on ABC-7, 670 The Score
Game Thread and Series Preview
Your game thread is down in the comments, so let’s have some good, clean (safe-for-work) fun today.
Starting Pitchers
Cubs: Jose Quintana (R): 4.46 ERA, 4.85 FIP; 2.00 K/BB
versus
Pirates: Jameson Taillon (R): 3.66 ERA, 3.47 FIP; 3.42 K/BB
Pittsburgh Pirates:
- Corey Dickerson, LF
- Starling Marte, CF
- Gregory Polanco, RF
- David Freese, 3B
- Elias Diaz, C
- Josh Bell, 1B
- Josh Harrison, 2B
- Adeiny Hechavarria, SS
- Jameson Taillon, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Tommy La Stella, 3B
- Ben Zobrist, RF
- Javy Baez, SS
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Ian Happ, CF
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Willson Contreras, C
- Jose Quintana, P
- David Bote, 3B
