NEWSLETTER
To plunk or not to plunk …
To plunk, or not to plunk: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to pitch inside but avoid the contact, Or to take arms against a sea of Cubbies, And by retaliating, hit them?
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) May 29, 2018
As Brett has already guessed, I’m expecting Anthony Rizzo to receive at least a questionable inside pitch or two tonight, after his slide into home last night … which I’m not sure I understand. Even if there’s full agreement on the illegality of the slide (the league has since flipped their position), it’s not like it was done with any intent to injure Diaz. In other words, it might have been illegal but it wasn’t dirty.
Update: In the middle of writing this, reports have come out that the league suggested exactly that:
Rizzo said Theo and Maddon were told by league office that his slide was not dirty. Rizzo still wonders about clarity of rule.
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) May 29, 2018
So … why would the Pirates want to retaliate? Well, maybe I’m the wrong person to ask, because I’m pretty wholeheartedly against retaliation in any form for any reason, so whatever. I guess we’ll see.
On a more specific game-level, Jon Lester is taking the ball tonight and looking to build on back-to-back excellent starts against the Reds and Indians. When you combine those two efforts, Lester has gone 13.0 straight innings with just 2 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks against 12 strikeouts. All in all, he’s allowed just 15 earned runs this season, which is sixth best in baseball.
Starting opposite Lester is the rookie Nick Kingham. Kingham has made just three starts in his big league career (against the Cardinals, Brewers, and Padres) and they were all pretty good. Across his 18.1 IP, Kingham walked just two batters while striking out a massive 21. He has allowed some earned runs thanks to 12 hits (including 2 homers) and plenty of hard contact, but he’s mostly just been good.
The key to the game for the Cubs, then, will be getting their hacks in and doing their damage on balls in play (patience won’t help them much and the strikeouts could rack up quickly, so contact is preferable).
A win today would tilt the series to the Cubs. So let’s see it.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (28-22) Pittsburgh Pirates (28-25) – 6:05 on WGN, 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: Jon Lester (L): 2.37 ERA, 4.11 FIP; 2.18 K/BB
versus
Pirates: Nick Kingham (R): 3.44 ERA, 2.56 FIP; 10.50 K/BB
Pittsburgh Pirates Lineup:
- Josh Harrison, 2B
- Austin Meadows, RF
- Starling Marte, CF
- Josh Bell, 1B
- David Freese, 3B
- Sean Rodriguez, LF
- Elias Diaz, C
- Jordy Mercer, SS
- Nick Kingham, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Ben Zobrist, 2B
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Ian Happ, CF
- Addison Russell, SS
- Jason Heyward, RF
- Jon Lester, P
