Hey, come on. We’ve been in elimination games before. It’s no sweat.
Tonight, the Chicago Cubs will host the Colorado Rockies in a winner-advances to the NLDS Wild Card game. Both teams lost a chance to win their division in tie-breakers yesterday, but both are getting an opportunity for redemption today. At least it’s at Wrigley Field.
Jon Lester is pitching for the Cubs tonight and he’s been quite good lately and especially in big games like this. Of course, the Rockies lineup is powerful – even out of Coors – and they’ve hit lefties well all season. Kyle Freeland is pitching for the Rockies and he’s been exceptionally good this season, but will be starting tonight on three-days rest. Will that be enough for the Cubs righties to get him? I’m not sure, but it’ll undoubtedly play a factor.
The Rockies bullpen, by the way, has been pretty good lately, as they own a 2.12 ERA on the road in September (3.43 at home). The Cubs failed to get an early lead with a dominant bullpen looming yesterday, let’s hope they don’t make the same mistake today. Should this be the last Pre-Gamin’ post I write until next Spring … ah forget it. Let’s just win.
GO CUBS.
Game Info
Colorado Rockies @ Chicago Cubs – Tuesday, October 2nd at 7:08 CT on ESPN, ESPN Radio
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): 3.32 ERA, 4.39 FIP; 2.33 K/BB
versus
Rockies: Kyle Freeland (L): 2.85 ERA, 3.67 FIP; 2.47 K/BB
Colorado Rockies Lineup:
- Charlie Blackmon, CF
- DJ LeMahieu, 2B
- Nolan Arenado, 3B
- Trevor Story, SS
- Matt Holliday, LF
- Ian Desmond, 1B
- David Dahl, RF
- Chris Iannetta, C
- Kyle Freeland, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Ben Zobrist, RF
- Kris Bryant, LF
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Javy Baez, SS
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
- Daniel Murphy, 2B
- Willson Contreras, C
- David Bote, 3B
- Jon Lester, P