NEWSLETTER
Tonight, the undefeated Chicago Cubs are taking on the Texas Rangers, and they’ll do so with their big 2017-2018 free agent Yu Darvish on the mound. Here’s how they’ll lineup behind him.
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Ben Zobrist, 2B
- Kris Bryant, LF
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Javy Baez, SS
- Kyle Schwarber, DH
- Willson Contreras, C
- Jason Heyward, RF
- David Bote, 3B
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
The righty Edinson Volquez is starting for the Rangers tonight after missing all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery. We’ll get into his velocity and pitch mix in the Pre-Gamin’ post later on, but for now, you can note that he’s actually been pretty split-neutral for his career (.333 wOBA versus lefties, .324 wOBA versus righties, with over 3,200 batters faced on each side).
So, like Mike Minor before him, Volquez and the Rangers aren’t really giving Joe Maddon an obvious lefty/righty advantage to exploit.
With that said, Kyle Schwarber is grabbing his first start of the season as the DH, after starting the season opener on the bench – though, he actually wound up with three at-bats in that game, anyway … product of a clicking offense, I suppose.
Ben Zobrist, who DH-ed in the first game, get his first start at second base of the year, which doesn’t actually bump David Bote from the game, as he’ll cover third base for Kris Bryant, who’s out in left field. Ah, the many joys of a designated hitter.
Albert Almora struck out three times in game one and is facing a tougher assignment with a righty on the mound this evening, but is right back out there in center field nonetheless. He’ll get plenty of chances to prove himself early on this season, and we’re rooting for him to nail down that everyday job. As expected, Anthony Rizzo, Javy Baez, Willson Contreras, and Jason Heyward are at their usual spots at first base, shortstop, catcher, and right field.
As usual, we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ closer to game time (7:05 CT).
