Tonight, the Chicago Cubs are squaring up against the Philadelphia Phillies. After losing two of three in Boston, you can bet they’ll be hungry to put a little more space between themselves and .500.
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Here’s tonight’s group:
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Ben Zobrist, 2B
- Jason Heyward, RF
- Willson Contreras, C
- Javy Baez, SS
- Brett Anderson, P
- Jon Jay, CF
Outfield bleachers and batting 12th: Michael Cerami
As I’m sure you noticed, Addison Russell is getting the night off tonight. In his place, Javy Baez will cover shortstop. We said it before, but having someone with Baez’s defensive skills to back up a Gold Glove caliber shortstop like Russell is just so valuable. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that his bat has plenty of upside.
Taking his place (5th) in the batting order is Jason Heyward. Heyward has slowed down a little bit from that rocket stretch ten days ago, but he is working on a four-game hit streak and is still striking the ball very hard.
Later tonight, we’ll get into the Phillies’ starter, Vince Velasquez, but for now suffice it to say that he’s been fairly split neutral for his career.
As usual we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ closer to game time (7:08 CT).
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