Nothing like facing the best team in baseball when you’re down BAD. Here’s a look at the Cubs lineup for their Memorial Day matchup against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Miles Mastrobuoni, 3B
- Nico Hoerner, 2B
- Ian Happ, LF
- Seiya Suzuki, RF
- Dansby Swanson, SS
- Mike Tauchman, CF
- Edwin Rios, DH
- Matt Mervis, 1B
- Tucker Barnhart, C
Tucker Barnhart is starting, so naturally, so is Miles Mastrobuoni and Edwin Rios. It’s like clockwork. With that said, today’s Rays starter, Taj Bradley, has been a lot tougher on lefties than righties. So … confusion. Must be something under the hood about the small sample.
For what it’s worth, I think that’s also the reason we’re seeing Dansby Swanson (fifth) and Nico Hoerner (second) batting in completely different spots this afternoon. At first, I thought this was the first “shake-it-up” Cubs lineup of the year given all the struggles. But I think it’s really just the lefty thing. Hopefully it makes a difference.
Tampa Bay Rays Lineup:
- TBA
Pitching Matchup:
Chicago Cubs: Marcus Stroman, RHP
Marcus Stroman is back on another great stretch, with six innings of one-run ball against the Phillies and eight innings of two-run ball against the Mets. He had a hiccup a few games ago, but has been mostly lights out all season long.
Tampa Bay Rays: Taj Bradley, RHP
Today, the Cubs lineup will face 22-year old righty (and recent top-50 prospect) Taj Bradley, who’s just five starts into his big league career. And while the results haven’t been great just yet (4.44 ERA), he does have 34 strikeouts in just 24.1 IP against just four walks! The contact has been a little bit on the hard side, but not terribly so … my bet is he’s actually quite good, as everyone suspected. Great.
Broadcast Info:
Chicago Cubs (22-30) vs Tampa Bay rays (39-16) at 1:20 pm CT on MARQ, 670 The Score