After a day to rest in the spoils of elimination (er, I mean, the sadness of it), the Cubs now will put out a slightly more normal lineup against the trying-to-win-the-Central Cardinals. You can take back your tears, Brewers.
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Tony Kemp, CF
- Nick Castellanos, RF
- Ben Zobrist, 2B
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Willson Contreras, C
- Ian Happ, 3B
- Victor Caratini, 1B
- Nico Hoerner, SS
- Alec Mills, P
Nico Hoerner is back in there, but not getting a taste of second base just yet – he’ll man shortstop, with Ben Zobrist back at second.
Tony Kemp – he of the quietly-good-contact-data in August, and quietly-good-results in September – leads off again, which, hey, whatever. Ian Happ gets the nod at third base, which I like. I tend to think he can probably handle the corner infield positions well enough for him to be a depth option (defensively, I mean) at those positions next year with an expanded bench.
Nick Castellanos (60 doubles) and Kyle Schwarber (40 dingers) are back in there as they chase some cool personal milestones.
As usual, we’ll have all the other good stuff closer to game time (7:15pm CT) in the Pre-Gamin’.