The Chicago Cubs travel to make their first ever trip to SunTrust Park, home of the Atlanta Braves. They’ll leave the designated hitter in Baltimore, but will throw together a lineup similar to what scored 27 runs during the team’s three-game sweep of the Orioles.
Here’s what the lineup will look like as they seek their fourth consecutive win:
- Ben Zobrist, 2B
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Ian Happ, CF
- Jason Heyward, RF
- Javy Baez, SS
- Jon Lester, P
Braves starter Julio Teheran has not found his new digs to provide much of a home-field advantage. Teheran is 1-6 with a 7.58 ERA in nine starts at home this season, and opponents are slashing .298/.374/.537 against him in those games. The home cooking isn’t great for Teheran, who owns an elevated walk rate (9.4%) and diminished strikeout rate (15.0%) when at SunTrust Park.
And yet, this appears to be a tough matchup for the Cubs on paper. Kyle Schwarber is 3-for-3 against Teheran, but the rest of the Cubs are 5-for-42 against the right-handed hurler. Schwarber is one of just three Cubs (Anthony Rizzo, Jon Jay being the others) to have an extra-base hit against Teheran. Hopefully, the extreme home splits play more than recent history.
As usual, we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ closer to game time (6:35 CT).