NEWSLETTER
*This post is brought to you by Cynch, the new propane home delivery service. They deliver your grill tank right to your doorstep and take away your old tank for just $10 with the Bleacher Nation promo code “BN10”. Just enter your address, leave the tank on your porch/driveway, and Cynch will do the rest.*
Cubs Lineup — The Cubs hung on by a hair for their 78th win last night (this is such a goofy season), but they’ve still got some work to do in the standings. That work continues tonight with Javier Assad on the mound and…WAIT A MINUTE… BAH GOD, THAT’S PCA’S MUSIC!
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Chris Morel, DH
- Nico Hoerner, 2B
- Ian Happ, LF
- Cody Bellinger, 1B
- Dansby Swanson, SS
- Seiya Suzuki, RF
- Yan Gomes, C
- Pete Crow-Armstrong, CF
- Nick Madrigal, 3B
After a day of hand-wringing over Pete Crow-Armstrong’s playing time (which, to be fair, was instigated by David Ross’ a little misleading comments), the Cubs No. 1 prospect has made his way into the starting Cubs lineup. Tonight, he’ll bat eighth and patrol the spacious center field of Coors.
With a lefty on the mound last night (Kyle Freeland) and another on the mound tomorrow (Ty Flach) — both with fairly enormous lefty/righty splits — I suspect this will be PCA’s only start in Colorado. But as we saw yesterday, that doesn’t mean he can’t work his way into these games half-way through. Ultimately, for now, that can be enough.
As for tonight’s starter, Chris Flexen, more on him below. But you should note he actually carries fairly significant reverse splits this season and for his career, meaning righties are hitting him a lot better than lefties. PCA gets the nod, nonetheless.
With PCA in center field, Cody Bellinger moves to first base. But Jeimer Candelario (who just went on the IL) is out. Mike Tauchman is also on the bench, as Christopher Morel continues to draw additional start at designated hitter. Hopefully, he can run into another monster blast or two tonight.
With a righty on the mound (and no Candelario to lengthen the lineup), Ian Happ moves back up to third in the batting order. Seiya Suzuki bats sixth.
Colorado Rockies Lineup:
- Charlie Blackmon, RF
- Kris Bryant, DH
- Nolan Jones, LF
- Elias Diaz, C
- Ryan McMahon, 3B
- Elehuris Montero, 1B
- Brendan Rodgers, 2B
- Alan Trejo, SS
- Brenton Doyle, CF
Pitching Matchup:
Chicago Cubs: Javier Assad, RHP
I know I talked a lot about Jordan Wicks possibly being the Cubs third best rotation option at the moment, but don’t let that be taken as a slight on Javier Assad. The Cubs 26-year-old righty has been pretty great since joining the rotation full-time in early August, with a 2.09 ERA over the last month (6 starts, 38.2 IP). Opposing offenses aren’t striking out too often overall, but they’re not walking (6.0%) or hitting much (.214 AVG) either. Assad’s 88.6 MPH average exit velocity is solid and his 47.4% groundball rate isn’t half-bad either.
With that said, the Diamondbacks did smack him around a little bit (95.5 MPH EV, 13.6 barrel%, 63.6 hard%). And you hope that was just a one-time off-game and not the start of a trend. The Rockies (80 wRC+) have been the worst offense in MLB against right-handed pitching this season, and it’s been even worse in the second-half (72 wRC+).
Colorado Rockies: Chris Flexen, RHP
Over 12 starts (plus 13 relief appearances) amounting to 80.2 IP, Chris Flexen has a 7.36 ERA this season. He’s hardly striking anyone out (16%), he doesn’t generate a lot of groundballs (41.2%), and it’s arguably only gotten worse lately. After re-joining the rotation on July 29, Flexen has allowed 30 earned runs in 38.2 IP, most recently giving up 6ER over 2.1 innings in Arizona. It would be just swell if he could repeat those results for the Cubs lineup tonight.
Broadcast Info:
Chicago Cubs (78-67) vs Colorado Rockies (51-92) at 7:40 pm CT on MARQ, 670 The Score
If you want to get in on some action for today’s Cubs game, head over to our Illinois Online Sports Betting page for the latest deals and offers.
