NEWSLETTER
Yesterday, the Chicago Cubs came back against the Nationals to win their 67th game of the year. Tomorrow, they’re staring down the barrel of Max Scherzer. So today, they better win, if they’d like to take the series.
Tanner Roark is going for the Nationals, and he’s having essentially the same season as last year – middling – which is a bit of a disappointment after his breakout 2016 campaign. As we explored in the lineup post, Roark is tougher on righties than lefties, doesn’t strikeout or walk many batters, and does a really nice job of limiting hard contact (though he gets an average amount of soft contact, too). He has allowed many more fly balls this season than he has in the past – which hasn’t been a problem because of no hard contact – so I suppose we should hope for the wind to blow out today.
Of course, that could be a problem for Jon Lester, whose fly ball rate has exploded to 38.5% this season. And it’s been especially bad lately has he’s allowed a 50.0 FB% and 43.8 FB% in his last two games. Indeed, the runs have begun to catch up to Lester, after escaping them all season long, so hopefully he brings his A-game to the table this afternoon.
With Max Scherzer looming, the Cubs would be wise to win today.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (67-48) vs. Washington Nationals (59-57) – Saturday, August 11th at 3:05 CT on ABC-7, FS1, 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): 3.44 ERA, 4.82 FIP; 1.96 K/BB
versus
Nationals: Tanner Roark (R): 4.21 ERA, 4.11 FIP; 2.68 K/BB
Washington Nationals:
- Adam Eaton, RF
- Trea Turner, SS
- Bryce Harper, CF
- Ryan Zimmermann, 1B
- Juan Soto, LF
- Mark Reynolds, 3B
- Daniel Murphy, 2B
- Matt Wieters, C
- Tanner Roark, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Javy Baez, 2B
- Jason Heyward, RF
- David Bote, 3B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Addison Russell, SS
- Jon Lester, P
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
