NEWSLETTER
And the day has finally come.
After facing Jacob deGrom just last week, the Chicago Cubs will face another legitimate Cy Young candidate in Aaron Nola this afternoon (and with the series on the line, no less). It won’t be easy.
On top of the obviously stellar 2.10 ERA and 2.62 FIP, Nola has been a master of contact this season, keeping his ground ball rate over 50%, his soft-hit rate at 22.3% (7th in MLB) and his hard-hit rate at an astonishingly low 24.0% rate – that’s the best mark in baseball and a full 2.1 percentage points better than second place (Chris Sale). Yeah.
But he’ll get big Jon Lester across from him this afternoon, and Lester has a tendency to rise to the occasion. In his last start, the Cubs veteran lasted 6.0 innings against the Mets allowing 3 earned runs on 5 hits and 3 walks against 3 strikeouts. It was far from his best effort, but it was a quality start and that’s all you can really ask for. Just keep us in the game. Hopefully, that’s what he does today – keeps the Cubs in the game.
It’s a rubber match, yo. Go Cubs.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (80-55) at Philadelphia Phillies (72-63) – Sunday, September 2nd at 12:35 CT on WGN, TBS, 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):Â 3.67 ERA, 4.78 FIP; 2.13 K/BB
versus
Phillies: Aaron Nola (R):Â 2.10 ERA, 2.62 FIP; 3.77 K/BB
Philadelphia Phillies:
- Roman Quinn, CF
- Rhys Hoskins, LF
- Jose Bautista, RF
- Carlos Santana, 1B
- Asdrubal Cabrera, 3B
- Scott Kingery, SS
- Pedro Florimon, 2B
- Jorge Alfaro, C
- Aaron Nola, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Daniel Murphy, 2B
- Javy Baez, SS
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Kris Bryant, RF
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Willson Contreras, C
- Ian Happ, CF
- Jon Lester, P
- David Bote, 3B
