Today, the Chicago Cubs will try to even up their series against the Cardinals like a haircut that’s gone wrong on just one side. Here’s the lineup.
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
- Jason Heyward, RF
- Javy Baez, SS
- Willson Contreras, C
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Ian Happ, 3B
- Jose Quintana, P
- David Bote, 2B
The Cubs just saw today’s starter, Miles Mikolas, last weekend and they didn’t do all that great against him. He didn’t dominate the lineup, to be sure, but 2 runs over 5 winnings with just 2 walks and 6 strikeouts is not a “win” for any offense. Hopefully, the Cubs can do a little better this time around.
Reminder, the righty, Mikolas, has traditional splits and they’re fairly significant (nearly 80-point difference in wOBA between lefties and righties), but he also handles lefties quite well (.298 wOBA), so there’s not much of an advantage for guys like Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, etc.
Speaking of which, there goes Anthony Rizzo leading off again. He’s got a .431/.524/.745 slash line as the leadoff man this year (63 PAs), with identical 14.3% strikeout and walk rates. Let’s hope that continues today.
Elsewhere, Ian Happ remains at third base in Kris Bryan’s place and Javy Baez … once again covers shortstop? This is the second game in row that Addison Russell has been held out of the lineup, so we have to address it. The reasons are almost either 1) he’s being held out, as his name is bounced around in trade discussions or 2) he’s just not feeling 100% healthy right now.
Although the first option is technically possible, I have to admit that I don’t see it. More likely than not, Russell is just working through something and the days off are to help him heal faster. Given how many injuries he’s worked through in the past, I’m guessing it’s nothing more than that.
As usual, we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ closer to game time (3:05 CT).