Hey, the leadoff hitter is back. Kris Bryant missed yesterday’s game with a lingering left wrist and left ring finger issue, but he’s back in there this afternoon.
The Cubs and Brewers have split the first two games of the series, which means whoever wins today will guarantee themselves a four-game series split. With Milwaukee already 5.5 games back of the Cubs and just 43 games to play, they’ll need to take advantage of every head-to-head matchup they can get.
Here’s how David Ross is lining his guys up for Game 3.
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
1. Kris Bryant, 3B
2. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
3. Javy Baez, SS
4. Kyle Schwarber, LF
5. Willson Contreras, C
6. Ian Happ, CF
7. Jason Heyward, RF
8. Victor Caratini, DH
9. Jason Kipnis, 2B
The righty, Adrian Houser, had a pretty nice start to his season with just one run allowed over 12.0 innings against the White Sox and Pirates, but as soon as he ran into the Twins, he had a rougher go: 5.0 IP, 6H, 1BB, 4ER. Let’s hope the Cubs offense puts up at least as much of a challenge.
Houser doesn’t have a ton of big league experience, but in his 144 innings, he’s carried traditional splits, meaning lefties have hit him a lot better than righties – they’ve also walked nearly twice as often. With that in mind, Jason Kipnis gets the start at second base, with Victor Caratini taking DH duties. Combined with Ian Happ and Jason Heyward, that’ll be four lefties in a row at the bottom of the order. Maybe the bottom can continue carrying the recent load?
Pre-Gamin’ coming at you shortly for the 2:20pm CT start.