Cubs vs. Pirates: Quintana vs. Lyles (Game 88)
CHC (45-42): LHP Jose Quintana (5-7, 4.21 ERA)
PIT (42-43): RHP Jordan Lyles (5-4, 3.71 ERA)
First pitch 3:05pmCDT
If you are able to feel excited for baseball after last night's game, then either you are a better fan than I or you did not watch that 9th inning. Either way, kudos. Quintana takes the mound, following a good start against Cincinnati in which he pitched six scoreless innings. The start before that was an atrocious 9-run bashing. It's hard to know what to expect from Quintana lately, but it sure would be nice if he missed some more bats and avoided homeruns for a while. Quintana made his best start of the season against the Pirates back on April 11, pitching seven scoreless and striking out eleven. Current Pirates have a .660 OPS against him collectively. Josh "MVP?" Bell is 2-7 with a homerun. Corey Dickerson is 5-11 with a homerun.At 28, Jordan Lyles is off to his best start ever. The obvious transformation in his numbers is that he's continued to improve on his strikeout rate going from around 5 or 6 per nine innings 2011-2016 up to 7.11, 8.62, and now 9.09 in the last three years. He's also mostly avoided the HR bug that has plagued pitchers this year, maintaining a reasonable looking 1.02 homers per nine innings. The Cubs are 15-65 off of him. Russell is 3-4 with a homerun. Heyward is 3-7 with a homer. Rizzo is 2-14 with four strikeouts.
Happy Fourth of July, Cubs fans. Consider celebrating with some good deeds, donations, and/or activism.
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