The Chicago Cubs have won four in a row after their previous 11-game winning streak was halted by a couple bullpen hiccups. With Hector Rondon off to the DL – and John Lackey with him – the Cubs may have a tougher time keeping the good times rolling on this West Coast swing.
Kyle Hendricks has arguably been the Cubs’ best pitcher this year and, in theory, his low-walk, groundball, weak contact tendencies should play well at Coors Field – or as well as any pitcher can hope. The reality is, sometimes dudes just get blown up here. It happens. Don’t stress if it does to Hendricks tonight (or Montgomery/Cahill tomorrow, or Hammel on Sunday).
That’s not just because of the Coors Field effect, mind you – it’s also because the Rockies, individually, hit so freaking much better at home than on the road. Almost to a man, these guys don’t just have strong home/road splits, they have INSANE home road splits.
Hendricks will be opposed by Tyler Anderson, a young lefty who has been pretty darn good this year, all things considered. Heck, he has a better xFIP than Hendricks (though we know that doesn’t quite capture all of Hendricks’ ability). Anderson will see a whole lot of righty Cubs bats, so it should be a challenge, as he has pretty decent L/R splits. He is – as you would suspect -slightly worse at home than on the road.
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Game Info
Chicago Cubs (77-43) at Colorado Rockies (58-63) – 8:40 CT on CSN-C, 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 this afternoon.
The Series Preview lives here. The Lineup Discussion lives here.
Starting Pitchers
Cubs: Kyle Hendricks (R): 2.19 ERA, 3.39 FIP, 3.63 xFIP; 3.54 K/BB
versus
Rockies: Tyler Anderson (L): 3.42 ERA, 3.57 FIP, 3.61 xFIP; 3.47 K/BB
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Colorado Rockies Lineup:
- Charlie Blackmon, CF
- D.J. LeMahieu, 2B
- Carlos Gonzalez, RF
- Nolan Arenado, 3B
- David Dahl, LF
- Gerardo Parra, 1B
- Nick Hundley, C
- Daniel Descalso, SS
- Tyler Anderson, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Dexter Fowler, CF
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Jorge Soler, RF
- Addison Russell, SS
- Matt Szczur, LF
- Willson Contreras, C
- Javy Baez, 2B
- Kyle Hendricks, P
