Chicago Cubs Lineup (Game 1): La Stella at 3B, Zobrist in RF, Garcia Pitching

After last night’s hose-job with the delays and postponement, not to mention facing Max Scherzer in the makeup, you probably already knew Joe Maddon would roll an interesting lineup. But who knows, maybe the Cubs make some big things happen.

Daniel Murphy leads off at second, Tommy La Stella plays third, and Anthony Rizzo maintains his familiar station. Ben Zobrist cleans up in right, Albert Almora Jr. bats fifth in center, and Willson Contreras is catching. Addison Russell is at short and Ian Happ handles left and bats ninth.

I can’t for the life of me understand why Almora is in the heart of the order against one of the best righties in the game or why Contreras is in there at all, which means both will make me look silly for doubting them.

Garcia is on the mound for his first Cubs appearance and his first start at all since June 19, when he was with the Blue Jays. He’s actually been really good against lefties all season and has absolutely smothered them since moving to the ‘pen, but he hasn’t pitched as many as three innings in well over a month.

Scherzer is insanely good and I’m guessing enough of you have heard about him that I don’t need to get into any scouting reports here. He struck out 11 men in his most recent start to give him five consecutive seasons with over 250 strikeouts, which is quite decent. If the Cubs want to win this one, they just need to try to hang around while Scherzer’s in the game and then have David Bote hit a late pinch-hit grand slam.

First pitch is at 2:05pm CT and will be carried by NBC Sports Chicago and 670 The Score. Stick around afterwards because the second game starts 45 after the conclusion of this one.

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