The Cubs head to the nation’s capital to take on the second best team in baseball, the Washington Nationals.
In fact, as I mentioned earlier, the Cubs and Nationals have just about the same record since the last time these two teams met up. Of course, the last time these two teams met up, the Cubs swept the Nationals in four, so we’ll see how it goes this time.
The Cubs won’t have it easy tonight, either, as they’ll face 2013 AL Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer. However, they’ll do so with a plan. Scherzer has had a pretty negative pronounced split against lefties this year (.382 wOBA vs. LH), so the Cubs will load the lineup with them. Hopefully, that does the trick.
Opposing Scherzer will be an increasingly hot Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks has allowed just six earned runs in last four starts (27.1 IP), and has both an ERA (2.90) and FIP (3.05) right around the 3.00 mark. Miguel Montero will be his catcher, and it looks like a good day for him to start slugging again (though, maybe that’s unfair, even with Scherzer’s 2016 splits, he’s still Max Scherzer).
The Cubs have won six straight series and a win tonight would go a long way to making that seven. Let’s see if they can get things started.
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Game Info
Chicago Cubs (43-18) at Washington Nationals (39-24), 6:05 CT on CSN, ESPN, 670 The Score.
Game Thread and Series Preview
Your game thread is down there in the comments, so have fun. But keep it “safe for work” type fun, all right?
The Series Preview lives here. The Lineup Discussion lives here.
Starting Pitchers
Cubs: Kyle Hendricks (R): 2.90 ERA, 3.04 FIP, 3.38 xFIP; 3.80 K/BB
versus
Braves: Max Scherzer (R): 3.57 ERA, 3.96 FIP, 3.40 xFIP; 4.28 K/BB
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Washington Nationals Lineup:
1. Ben Revere, CF
2. Jayson Werth, LF
3. Bryce Harper, RF
4. Daniel Murphy, 2B
5. Ryan Zimmerman, 1B
6. Wilson Ramos, C
7. Anthony Rendon, 3B
8. Danny Espinosa, SS
9. Max Scherzer, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
1. Dexter Fowler, CF
2. Jason Heyward, RF
3. Kris Bryant, 3B
4. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
5. Ben Zobrist, 2B
6. Chris Coghlan, LF
7. Miguel Montero, C
8. Addison Russell, SS
9. Kyle Hendricks, P