Don’t miss the Series Preview that went up at the same time the lineup was released (naturally).
Last night’s game ended at 10:40 PM and today’s starts at 12:35 CT. That’s just 14-hours between pitches *re-counts on fingers* including a flight to Pittsburgh. The Cubs are going to be tired.
Cubs arrived at team hotel around 3:45 a.m. ET
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) May 28, 2018
Here’s how they’ll line up:
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Ben Zobrist, RF
- Tommy La Stella, 2B
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Javy Baez, SS
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Chris Gimenez, C
- Mike Montgomery, P
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
Today’s Pirates pitcher, Chad Kuhl, has struggled mightily against left-handers this season, allowing a .377 wOBA against them, versus just a .313 wOBA against right-handers. And, indeed, the same is true for his career, so getting an extra left-hander in there (in the form of Tommy La Stella) this afternoon was a bit of a no-brainer – I’ll point out that there’s no Jason Heyward or Ian Happ today, though.
Elsewhere, Chris Gimenez gets his first big league start of the season, and although he’s hit righties worse than lefties for his career, the opposite was true last season (108 wRC+ versus right-handers, 88 wRC+ versus lefties). Of course, he was always going to be in the lineup, because Willson Contreras caught the late one last night. So let’s call it a happy coincidence.
Javy Baez is covering short for Addison Russell and the Cubs are batting the pitcher, Mike Montgomery, who won’t likely go deep into this game, eighth (i.e. the Cubs are expecting to pinch hit for him earlier than usual). But other than that, there’s not much to see here. Let’s go Cubs, and, as usual, we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ closer to game time (12:35 CT).