I expect to see a left handed heavy lineup tonight. Schwarber, Happ, maybe even Avila??? Yu Darvish is murder on righties, so this may be the night to give Contreras a break and get an extra left handed bat in the lineup. BUT, Contreras is great behind the plate with Hendricks, so maybe he does stay. On the same line of thinking, wonder if we see Happ in Right, and Zobrist at 2nd, and give Heyward either the night off, or play him in Center. Either way, safe bet Javy sits for a while at least. (I'm sure he'll come in late for defense or pinch hit vs a lefty, pinch run, etc)
Really surprised Zobrist over Happ. Happ has more power and I hear the wind is blowing out, need elevation. But, Ben is a vet and is known for coming up big, maybe he does tonight.
Joe finally gets Happ in, he has to face lefty and bat from his weaker side. Just He coulda had 2-3 at bats left handed with the wind blowing out. That was a miss imo.
6-1, late. Schwarber hit a bomb 4 pitches into the game. Bryant and Contreras followed with singles, jack **** since. Just locked down. Very similar series to the 2015 NLCS.
1st to 4 wins. Not over because our team hasn't shown up yet. If we're hitting and still losing then I would concede but we have yet to see cubs baseball. The baseball that brought us here.... Tomorrow night. One more game. One game at a time.
If the dodgers can beat us 3 times in a row, why can’t we beat them 3 times in a row. I still have faith in this team. “Why not us?
It sounds impossible, and surely will not be easy, but you just have to win one game at a time. Jake tonight. Q tomorrow. Lester game 6 And then all hands on deck game 7, with Hendricks starting. All of these guys will be on full rest, so if there was ever a time to go on a 4 game winning streak, now is that time. Just like last year when we were down to Lester, Arrieta, Hendricks to close the last 3 games, they each went out and did their job. This year, imo, it's more about the bats need to wake up and make some noise. Take pitches, get walks, advance runners and come thru in the clutch. All 3 games we've taken an early lead on a home run. Almora 2 run shot in game 1, Russell solo shot in game 2, Schwarber last night. All three times, we didn't score again after that. Wake the bats up, let our fully rested starting pitching start to go 5-6-7 innings again, and limit our weakend pen. Bring Davis in in the 8th, etc. Shorten the game like LA has done, or the Indians last year. Starts with Jake tonight. Gotta have it.
Hopefully this lineup works.... Almora CF Schwarber LF Bryant 3B Rizzo 1B Contreras C Russell SS Baez 2B Jay RF Arrieta P
Contreras and Baez both hit absolute bombs. 2-0 However, we homered early the first 3 games too. Almora Russell Schwarber Contreras-Baez Zero runs outside of these homers.