Pre-Gamin’: Cubs at Marlins (6:10 CT) – Lineup, Broadcast Info, Game Thread
There’s nothing like a long weekend road trip to Miami to clear your head after a series sweep at home, is there?
Indeed, the Cubs will head to Marlins Park tonight, to begin an eleven game road trip against the Marlins, Reds and Mets. In the Series Preview, we determined that the Cubs should have mostly favorable pitching match-ups this weekend, starting tonight with Jon Lester on the mound.
Although David Ross will behind the plate tonight for Lester (as usual), Willson Contreras actually found his way into the lineup at first base. In fact, he’s also hitting clean-up, completely taking over for Anthony Rizzo, who’s getting a breather 1) for some back stiffness and 2) against a lefty. It’s also another really, really young lineup for the Cubs, what with Contreras, Albert Almora Jr., Javy Baez, Addison Russell, Kris Bryant and Jason Heyward joining oldies (but goodies) David Ross and Ben Zobrist.
Opposing the Cubs tonight is lefty Wei-Yin Chen, who signed with the Marlins for 5 years/$80 million over the offseason. Unfortunately, he hasn’t gotten off to the start he hoped for (5.22 ERA) in 2016, and he’s already given up 15 home runs on the year. 14 of those home runs have come from right handed hitters, who Chen has had trouble with in his career (.336 wOBA), and especially in 2016 (.352 wOBA). With the way Lester and Chen have been pitching lately, it’s the perfect night to load the lineup with right handers and let the Cubs offense try to out slug the opposition.
Three’s enough.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (47-23) at Miami Marlins (38-34), 6:10 CT on CSN, MLBN, 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: Jon Lester (L): 2.06 ERA, 2.97 FIP, 3.23 xFIP; 4.60 K/BB
versus
Marlins: Wei-Yin Chen (L): 5.22 ERA, 4.74 FIP, 4.33 xFIP; 3.42 K/BB
Miami Marlins Lineup:
1. Adeiny Hechavarria, SS
2. Martin Prado, 3B
3. Christian Yelich, LF
4. Marcell Ozuna, CF
5. Giancarlo Stanton, RF
6. J.T. Realmuto, C
7. Chris Johnson, 1B
8. Miguel Rojas, 2B
9. Wei-Yin Chen, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
1. Ben Zobrist, 2B
2. Jason Heyward, RF
3. Kris Bryant, LF
4. Willson Contreras, 1B
5. Javy Baez, 3B
6. Addison Russell, SS
7. Albert Almora, CF
8. David Ross, C
9. Jon Lester, P
