Cubs @ Mariners: Lester vs. Gonzales (Game 28)
CHC (15-12): LHP Jon Lester (1-1, 2.37 ERA)
SEA (18-14): LHP Marco Gonzales (5-0, 2.80 ERA)
First pitch 5:40pmCDT
After taking the back-and-forth game one, the Cubs go for a sweep of the short series today. Jon Lester will make his second start coming off of the IL. He showed no signs of rust on 4/25 when he went five innings allowing only one earned run. The veterans Encarnacion and Bruce have faced him in 73 total ABs. Bruce should get the day off, having gone 3-26 against the lefty. Encarnacion is 10-47 but has 3 HRs.Marco Gonzales takes the ball for the Mariners. He bounced back and forth between the majors and minors with the redbirds before breaking out with the Mariners last year, when he added a cutter to his mix. He doesn't overpower hitters, but that cutter has been a difference maker and seems to have set hitters up for the changeup as well. He's also very stingy with walks. Only Javier Baez (0-3) has faced him. Kris Bryant is 4-20 over his last 4 games, but he's also been hitting the ball hard (2 2B and 2 HR) and has only struck out 3 times.
After going 1 for their first 7 games, the Cubs went 14-6 to finish out April. During that stretch they scored 5.15 runs per game and allowed 3.15 runs per game. I would say they looked more like the team we expected them to be, but I honestly didn't expect the pitching to be this good.
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