Welp, the Cubs failed to close out the Giants in Game 3 of this National League Divisional Series with a 6-5 loss in extra innings Monday night.
With the setback, the Cubs will be calling on John Lackey for a starting gig later tonight. This would be Lackey’s first postseason appearance this year after capping off the regular season with an effective silencing of Pittsburgh in a 6-4 win on September 27. Lackey pitched for five innings and allowed just an earned run on five hits while striking out three Pirates in the process.
Lackey has pitched just twice in his career at AT&T Park with the last occurring back in 2009. He is 1-1 with a 2.57 ERA in those games.
Lackey struck out just seven hitters in his last two outings and yielded 22 ground balls in those games. His strikeout ratio per nine innings (7.20 K/9) has been lower since September than his season mark (8.60), but even if he continues that trend later tonight, he can be fine considering the space in the hitter-friendly AT&T Park.
The Cubs’ offense remains a big threat especially with its pitching staff joining the fray. Javier Baez and Kris Bryant have continued to hit well in the postseason with each batting an identical .417 in the NLDS.
Betting on the San Francisco Giants
The mystic of the Giants’ even-year magic is still very much alive. That’s after Joe Panik guaranteed San Francisco another game to play with a walk-off double RBI in extra innings on Monday.
Matt Moore gets the ball later tonight, looking to build on an excellent two-start stretch to end the regular season. Moore is 2-0 and allowed just two earned runs on nine hits with 17 K’s across 15.2 innings in wins over the Dodgers and the Rockies (both at home) in that span.
San Francisco is 6-2 in Moore’s last eight starts, four of which came at AT&T Park, where he went 4-2 with a 3.16 ERA in six starts back in the regular season.
Eduardo Nunez is the only Giants player on the roster that has at least 15 at-bats against Lackey, going 5-for-15 with four doubles and three walks in his career opposite the right-hander.
Connor Gillaspie, who hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning of last night’s ball game, is 4-for-15 with a home run and five RBI’s since the start of the postseason.
