While I’ll be desperately pulling for a Cubs win (and sweep) today, there’s so much less pressure, given the first two wins of the weekend. Of course, if the Cubs manage to pull it off, you can all but kiss the Cardinals goodbye in the Central.
With that said, the Cubs have another tough pitching matchup today, in the form of Lance Lynn. As we explored earlier, Lynn has been brutal on righties this season (and for his career, really), but he’s also gotten pretty great results against both types of hitters (3.01 ERA) this season.
Thanks to a low strikeout rate and a high walk rate, however, his peripherals (4.71 FIP) are far behind his results, but that doesn’t really take his ability to induce weak contact (something he’s pretty good at) into account.
Hard-hit Rate: 29.4%
Soft-hit Rate: 20.8%
It’s not like the Cardinals will have it any easier, though, as Jose Quintana has been quite good lately. As a matter of fact, his last time out was his best start with the Cubs (by game score) since his very first start with the Cubs just after the break. In that one Quintana went 7.0 innings against the Mets, giving up just two earned runs on six hits and one walk, while striking out seven.
And that reminds me: when we have a little more time and space, I’ll have to dig into his exploding strikeout rate since joining the Cubs:
Strikeout Rate:
Before Cubs:Â 20.4%
With Cubs:Â 27.7%
But for today, let’s just see if he can bring home the win and complete the sweep. Let’s go Cubs!
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (82-66) at St. Louis Cardinals (77-71)Â – 1:20 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.
Starting Pitchers
Cubs: Jose Quintana (L): 4.25 ERA, 3.88 FIP, 3.84 xFIP; 3.12 K/BB
versus
Cardinals: Lance Lynn (R): 3.01 ERA, 4.71 FIP, 4.73 xFIP; 2.09 K/BB
St. Louis Cardinals:
- Matt Carpenter, 3B
- Tommy Pham, LF
- Paul DeJong, SS
- Jose Martinez, 1B
- Dexter Fowler, CF
- Yadier Molina, C
- Kolton Wong, 2B
- Randal Grichuk, RF
- Lance Lynn, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Ben Zobrist, 2B
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Alex Avila, C
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
- Jason Heyward, RF
- Addison Russell, SS
- Jose Quintana, P