Cubs vs. Braves: Darvish vs. Keuchel (Game 80)
CHC (43-36): RHP Yu Darvish (2-3, 4.75 ERA)
ATL (47-33): LHP Dallas Keuchel (0-1, 5.40 ERA)
First pitch 7:05pmCDT
Darvish heads to the hill in order to untie the series. Yu's last start was a no-decision marred by a pair of Mets homeruns, accounting for three of the four runs he allowed. Darvish has yet to put together a consistent good stretch, but going back about a month to May 25th he seems to have gotten a handle on the walk problem that hurt him in the first two months of the season. His ERA during that time has been 4.34 anyway largely because he's allowed almost two homeruns per nine innings. A little good luck going his way would probably do wonders for fans' confidence in him. Darvish did not pitch in the Atlanta series during the first week. Former AL MVP Josh Donaldson is 4-20 off of him with nine strikeouts. Albies and Enciarte are each 3-7, and Enciarte has the lone dinger.Dallas Keuchel has made one start since signing with Atlanta. He allowed four runs, three earned, on eight hits in five innings to the Nationals. The 2015 Cy Young award winner saw a decline in his strikeouts last year but as always boasted a very high groundball rate and achieved the now rare feat of pitching over 200 innings. Anthony Rizzo is 2-5 with a homerun off of him. Descalso is the only other current Cub to have faced him, and he's 0-2. The Cubs have posted a 93 wRC+ against lefties this year. Contreras, Bryant, and Baez have mashed southpaws. Albert Almora has somehow been horrendous in what should be his offensive niche, posting a .558 OPS with a 21% strikeout rate and a 59.3% groundball rate. Rizzo uncharacteristically poor performance against lefites is probably due mostly to a high groundball rate and a low BABIP. Bote's not having the batted ball luck or hitting for the power he did against lefties in 2018.
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