Cubs’ Jon Lester closes out home stand with make-up game vs Indians

Following a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Cubs will welcome in the Cleveland Indians for a brief interleague makeup game that was postponed due to rain on June 15 at Wrigley Field.

Yesterday’s victory was exciting, but it brought a bit of bad news that will result in two key players being placed on the disabled list and could miss at least a month of action.

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According to Cubs.com via Bruce Levine, both Jason Motte and Jorge Soler have been played on the DL while the Cubs (71-51) called up Zac Rosscup and infielder Tommy La Stella to fill the gap.

It was noted that Motte’s injury is shoulder related, but Soler suffered an oblique injury and is the Cub that is expected to miss a month. He’s already missed a decent amount of time to a previous injury he sustained during the road trip against the Miami Marlins a couple of months ago.

So, it’ll be up to Jon Lester and the rest of this club to keep things going with a six-game lead ahead of the San Francisco Giants. Lester (8-9, 3.58 ERA) is coming off a terrible outing against the Tigers this past Tuesday in which he surrendered seven earned runs on as many hits including three home runs across 2 2/3 frames.

That just so happened to be his shortest and worst performance in his first year with Chicago.

Taking the mound for the Indians (58-65) opposite Lester will be 29-year-old right-hander, Corey Kluber. Kluber (8-13, 3.52 ERA) turned in two quality starts this month before the Red Sox tagged him for six earned runs behind six hits and four home runs in his previous start at Fenway Park.

He’ll have a tough time keeping this home run happy club in the ballpark if the wind is blowing out.

First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. central time and will air live on WGN, WBBM 780 AM.

Here’s a look at both starting lineup’s:

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