The Chicago Cubs won last night on the strength of great pitching, great defense, and a timely dinger. The offense overall, however, was wanting. Perhaps this crew will do a bit more damage.
Chicago Cubs Lineup v. San Francisco Giants (Jeff Samardzija):
- Dexter Fowler, CF
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Ben Zobrist, LF
- Addison Russell, SS
- Jason Heyward, RF
- Javy Baez, 2B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Kyle Hendricks, P
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The lineup is a near carbon copy of last night’s opening group, with the only change coming behind the plate. Willson Contreras, who has worked well with Kyle Hendricks, gets the start over David Ross and Miguel Montero.
Otherwise, the fungible Zobrist-Baez-Bryant trio goes LF-2B-3B once again. Although Zobrist had an issue or two in left field, Bryant was solid at third last night, and Baez was very good. With a groundball righty on the mound for the Cubs tonight, I especially don’t mind the biggest glove upgrade coming at second base.
All in all, it’s a defensive group, positioned in a way to keep Zobrist in the lineup. Jeff Samardzija has pretty huge splits this year, so there’s maybe a mild surprise to not see Miguel Montero and/or Chris Coghlan in there, but it’s hard to argue with the guys in the lineup.
We’ll have a full Pre-Gamin’ for you close to game time.