Unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of sickness going around the Taylor house at just the wrong time, since Baby Taylor is due to arrive any day now.
In service of being at 100% whenever that happens, I’m going to try to shake off a little bug I’ve been feeling the last couple days by going to bed early tonight. That means you’ll have to wait until morning for your EBS. You late night game-threaders: be good.
As for the game, I hope I’ll get to see at least a few strong innings from Jake Arrieta, who’ll be paired with David Ross for the first time in a while. And, of course, if Arrieta is great, folks will immediately start speculating about Arrieta’s effectiveness with certain catchers. However it goes, though, I’d suggest not making any broad generalizations in either direction, and instead go with what limited information your eyes, the strike zone, and the post-game comments tell you.
On the other bump, trying to get a series win for the Astros against a recently-limp Cubs offense is Mike Fiers, who has a reverse split for his career (thus the extra righties in tonight’s lineup).
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Game Info
Chicago Cubs (90-51) at Houston Astros (75-67) – 7:08 CT on ESPN, 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: Jake Arrieta (R): 2.84 ERA, 3.41 FIP, 3.67 xFIP; 2.51 K/BB
versus
Astros: Mike Fiers (R): 4.29 ERA, 4.55 FIP, 4.21 xFIP; 3.22 K/BB
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Houston Astros Lineup:
- George Springer, RF
- Alex Bregman, DH
- Jose Altuve, 2B
- Carlos Correa, SS
- Yulieski Gurriel, 3B
- Evan Gattis, C
- Colby Rasmus, LF
- Marwin Gonzalez, 1B
- Jake Marisnick, CF
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Dexter Fowler, CF
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Jorge Soler, DH
- Ben Zobrist, LF
- Addison Russell, SS
- Javy Baez, 2B
- David Ross, C
- Albert Almora Jr., RF