After absolutely demolishing the Diamondbacks on Monday night, the Cubs’ bats were silent on Tuesday.
Here’s the lineup for the rubber game against Arizona today:
- Jon Jay, CF
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Ian Happ, 2B
- Jason Heyward, RF
- Javy Baez, SS
- Jose Quintana, P
Here’s something you may not have realized, including today, Jon Jay has started in seven out of the past ten games with the Cubs. On top of that, his high average, high OBP, low slugging ways have continued here in the second half: .308/.426/.333. Despite not hitting for much power though, his overall slash line is still good for a 114 wRC+. (And admit it, despite how much we love slugging, it’s nice (and refreshing) to have a high contact, high OBP bat in the lineup).
With the righty Zack Greinke on the mound, Joe Maddon is throwing a whole lot of lefties in the lineup (I count four natural lefties, plus the switch hitter Ian Happ). But here’s the thing: both for his career and especially this season, Greinke has actually been tougher on lefties than he has on righties.
Versus Lefties:
Career: .294 wOBA, 3.15 FIP
2017: .259 wOBA, 1.92 FIP
Versus Rigties:
Career: .309 wOBA, 3.63 FIP
2017: .316 wOBA, 4.35 FIP
I’m sure Maddon has his reasons (including, of course, the batters’ preferences), but it sure seems like more righties might’ve actually been the way to go this afternoon. I’d love nothing more than to be wrong, though. Let’s see what happens.
As usual, we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ closer to game time (1:20 CT).