The Chicago Cubs are playing another game tonight, and in my opinion, it can’t come soon enough. Let’s see if this quite different group can shake off an ugly weekend in St. Louis.
Chicago Cubs Lineup:Â
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
- Ben Zobrist, RF
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Javy Baez, 2B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Victor Caratini, 1B
- Addison Russell, SS
- Ian Happ, LF
- Kyle Hendricks, P
Tonight, the Chicago Cubs are getting the MLB ERA leader, Jarlin Garcia, in their matchup against the Marlins. Given that the Cubs have scored exactly zero runs over their past forever, this makes perfect sense. Thanks, universe. Why not?
Speaking of Garcia, he’s pretty tough against both lefties and righties, but he has definitely been especially hard on fellow southpaws for his career …
Versus Lefties: .246 wOBA
Versus Righties: .281 wOBA
That’s particularly true in the strikeout rate department, where lefties are striking out much more (23.0%) than their right-handed counterparts (15.9%). And with that in mind, the Cubs have not a single left-handed hitter in their lineup. Can you even remember the last time that happened?
A couple starts back, Anthony Rizzo was the only one in there, but even he is sitting tonight (and that last lineup was also a Jon Lester start, so there were technically two lefties in there). And for what it’s worth, we don’t have any reason to believe Rizzo sitting tonight is back-related (as opposed to just wanting to go all righties), but I’m not surprised the Cubs are giving him a day of rest given the travel day and general struggles this season (and it all makes even more sense given how tough Garcia is on lefties).
In any case, the switch-hitting Victor Caratini (1B), Ian Happ (LF), and Ben Zobrist (RF) are in there for Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, and Jason Heyward. Hopefully, they can help this offense get going and start to turn things around. Might as well try something, right?
As usual, we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ closer to game time (7:05 CT).