The Chicago Cubs have just THREE MORE GAMES before they finally get an off day. Here’s the lineup for the most difficult of those three games.
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
- Kris Bryant, LF
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Javy Baez, 2B
- Ben Zobrist, RF
- Willson Contreras, C
- David Bote, 3B
- Kyle Hendricks, P
- Addison Russell, SS
I say tonight should be the most difficult, because the opposing starter, Patrick Corbin, has been on quite a roll.
Patrick Corbin, tonight's starter, has been very, very good lately.
And get this: Since the All-Star break (63.2 IP) he has 81 (!) strikeouts against just 7 (!!) walks. Prepare for frustration.
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) September 17, 2018
Against lefties this season, Corbin, a lefty himself, has actually allowed more overall production (.304 wOBA) than he has against righties (.249 wOBA).
But just because he’s a reverse split guy, doesn’t mean the Cubs’ players don’t have relevant splits of their own. For example, we know Albert Almora likes facing lefties and some of the other righties who could be easily moved in and out of the lineup – Addison Russell, David Bote – do too. And when you consider how much better the defense looks with Javy Baez and Russell up the middle, Bote (instead of Bryant) at third, Bryant (instead of Schwarber) in left, and so on, it begins to make some sense.
And given the way the entire offense has hit anyway, perhaps defense is the right way to go. I suppose we’ll see when this game ends sometime around midnight.
As usual, we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ closer to game time (8:40 CT).