The Chicago Cubs have a 4.0-game deficit in the division and and just a 1.0 game lead for the lower-Wild Card. With that in mind, here’s their lineup for game 3 in San Diego.
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Tony Kemp, 2B
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Nicholas Castellanos, RF
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Jason Heyward, CF
- Nico Hoerner, SS
- Cole Hamels, P
Last night, Ben Zobrist fouled a ball off his leg and Joe Maddon has since called that the reason why he isn’t starting and leading off against the righty Chris Paddack tonight. And that really stinks because without many other options (you can’t put Jason Heyward there again and Ian Happ hasn’t quite unquestionably earned it, himself), we’re left with Tony Kemp, who’s actually been worse against righties than he has against lefties this season.
I can point out that after having a couple weeks to adjust to his new team (so since Aug 16th), Kemp has made a lot of hard contact and much of it in the air, while being absolutely stuffed by an unsustainably low BABIP, but I’m pretty frustrated that we’re even still playing that game. It’s way too late and this season is way too close to be betting on results starting to match peripherals.
But again, while I don’t love Kemp leading off, I also don’t really know what other option there is (especially when Javy Baez and Zobrist are out, making the lineup thinner than usual). Everything else looks pretty good, though. We just have to hope Cole Hamels can keep his team close enough to win. Time continues to run out on the Cubs.
As usual, we’ll have your full Pre-Gamin’ post closer to game time (9:10 CT).