NEWSLETTER
After just their second series loss of the season, the Chicago Cubs are beginning a four-game set against the Phillies tonight at Wrigley Field. I’ve got bleacher tickets to the game, but every time I check the forecast, I get memories of the rain delays of opening night.
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Brett Anderson will be on the bump for the Cubs, in what is to be his fifth start of the season. He’s coming off a mixed outing against the Pirates, wherein he only allowed one earned run through six innings, but walked more (6) batters than he struck out (3). You may get away with that line some times, but it’s not something on which I’d bet.
The big positive out of his last game, however, was that his ground ball rate came out to 63.2%. If you recall, the general hope/idea behind Anderson’s potential success with the Cubs was rooted in his ability to induce a ton of ground balls – for the Cubs solid infield defense to gobble up. He hadn’t really shown that ability early in the season, but hopefully his last start is just the beginning of the trend.
Opposing Anderson and the Cubs is Phillies’ righty Vince Velasquez. Velasquez has been hit equally well by lefties (.332 wOBA) and righties (.327 wOBA) throughout his career, but those splits are dramatically different in limited 2017 duty (.431 wOBA v. lefties, .300 wOBA v. righties). Again it’s a very small sample, but Joe Maddon has filled the lineup with six batters capable of swinging it from the left side (including the pitcher, Anderson), so we’ll see if that works.
7:05 CT start time tonight – see you there.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (13-11) at Philadelphia Phillies (11-12) – 7:05 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 today.
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Starting Pitchers
Cubs: Brett Anderson (L): 3.54 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 4.25 xFIP; 1.27 K/BB
versus
Phillies: Vince Velasquez (R): 6.33 ERA, 5.83 FIP, 4.50 xFIP; 1.83 K/BB
Philadelphia Phillies:
- Cesar Hernandez, 2B
- Aaron Altherr, LF
- Odubel Herrera, CF
- Maikel Franco, 3B
- Michael Saunders, RF
- Tommy Joseph, 1B
- Freddy Galvis, SS
- Cameron Rupp, C
- Vince Velasquez, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- 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, LF
