Chicago Cubs Lineup

Chicago Cubs Lineup (5/6/19): ZoBryzzo Top Third, Bote at 2B, Hamels on Mound

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanMay 6, 2019

The Cubs will be trying to avoid the Revenge of the Sixth as they face the Marlins fresh off a sweep of the Cardinals. They’ll do it with Ben Zobrist leading off in right, the resurgent Kris Bryant at third base, and Anthony Rizzo at first. Javy Báez is at short and Willson Contreras is catching.

Jason Heyward mans center, David Bote is at second base, and Kyle Schwarber is in left. Given the way they have been hitting lately, and what they’re still capable of, that’s a really good bottom of the order.

Bryant looks primed to absolutely go off, as we saw from last night’s grand slam. All of his peripheral numbers support much better production than we’ve seen, so don’t be surprised when he feasts on Marlins pitching.

Looking for a better outcome than in his last outing against the Cubs is 23-year-old righty Sandy Alcantara, who gave up five earned on seven hits back in mid-April. He only walked one against seven strikeouts, though, so all was not terrible. Of note, Alcantara has altered his pitch mix significantly in his two most recent starts.

After going almost exclusively fastball/slider against the Cubs, throwing virtually no curves or changeups, the righty threw only a small handful of sliders to the Indians. That was the case in consecutive starts against Cleveland, so it may have just been a matter of the scouting report. Still, it’s something to monitor.

The Cubs destroyed Alcantara’s change in limited exposure, but he had success with the breaking pitches. Expect him to go with a lot more curveballs this time around, which could lead to some control issues. With only three strikeouts against seven walks in those two Indians starts, the youngster may be having some confidence issues.

With how the Cubs are playing right now, Wrigley probably isn’t the best place for him to turn that around.

Cole Hamels is coming off of two relatively disappointing outings, but he was able to dominate the Fish immediately prior to that. He should be able to do so again given that he’s facing pretty much a minor league lineup tonight. Not much to say about this, Hamels just needs to go out there and do his thing.

First pitch is at 7:05pm CT on NBC Sports Chicago+ and 670 The Score.

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanMay 6, 2019
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