The Cubs are 0 for their last 27 with runners in scoring position. It’s a streak that spans a full week of baseball. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that streak ends tonight. And then I’ll say it again tomorrow if it doesn’t.
Jon Lester’s been on fire in May – at least from a results perspective – and he’ll have to keep it up against a decent lineup (the top five, at least) in a decent ballpark for offense.
Speaking of which, the Cubs’ offense will have to do the work tonight against Josh Collmenter, because he will not walk you. He also won’t strike you out (I guess the Cubs will test that). So, lots of balls in play is the order of the day, and hopefully the Cubs hit it hard.
Junior Lake gets the start in left in place of Chris Coghlan, which could be about getting Coghlan a day off, about getting Lake some work, and/or about the fact that Collmenter’s been harder on lefties this year than righties (though that doesn’t hold for his career).
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (23-17) at Arizona Diamondbacks (19-21), 8:40 CT on CSN+ and MLB.tv.
Game Thread and Series Preview
Your game thread is down there in the comments, so have fun.
The Series Preview lives here.
Starting Pitchers
Jon Lester (3.70 ERA, 3.39 FIP, 3.22 xFIP; 3.62 K/BB)
versus
Josh Collmenter (5.36 ERA, 4.51 FIP, 4.37 xFIP; 3.67 K/BB)
Arizona Diamondbacks Lineup
1. Ender Inciarte, LF
2. A.J. Pollock, CF
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Yasmany Tomas, 3B
5. Mark Trumbo, RF
6. Chris Owings, 2B
7. Tuffy Gosewisch, C
8. Nick Ahmed, SS
9. Josh Collmenter, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup
1. Dexter Fowler, CF
2. Kris Bryant, 3B
3. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
4. Starlin Castro, SS
5. Jorge Soler, RF
6. Junior Lake, LF
7. David Ross, C
8. Jon Lester, P
9. Addison Russell, 2B