Chicago Cubs at a pitching disadvantage as Strasburg battles Lackey

With everything that happened for the Chicago Cubs today, hopefully, it sparks something in them to start winning games. They’ll have to do it against one of the league’s best in Stephen Strasburg.

This Chicago Cubs team continues its evolution this season, this time forced by the comments of a player. After dropping the second game of the series to the Washington Nationals, Miguel Montero blamed the inability to stop the run game on Jake Arrieta. Both were to blame, but the media is not where to air those grievances. His words led to him being DFA’d today by the Cubs. Now they’ll try and pick up the pieces against the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg.

The Cubs (39-38) continue to try to find a lineup that will work, as well as hope John Lackey (5-8, 4.74) will be “Good Lackey” as they try to shut down the Nationals while also finding a way to breakthrough on Strasburg (8-2, 3.57).

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The Nationals (46-31) haven’t gotten the best out of him lately as he’s failed to make it out of the sixth inning in any of his past three starts. However, against the Cubs? He’s posted a 1.95 ERA in four starts against them.

The Cubs are still without Jason Heyward (hand), Ben Zobrist (wrist) and Kyle Hendricks (tendinitis) as they try to piece together a lineup that can score runs on a consistent basis. They’ll have two rookies in the lineup tonight as Ian Happ and Mark Zagunis will start. They’ll also add another soon as a result of the Montero comments. Victor Caratini will join the club as their second catcher tonight.

Here are the lineups for tonight’s matchup:

Be sure to check back during the game for more Cubs news and info, including their trip to the White House and more. And we’ll have post-game coverage immediately following the game.