The Chicago Cubs have already stayed alive twice in this postseason, and they’ll look to do it again on Thursday night when they take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLCS.
The Cubs were able to avoid elimination on Wednesday thanks to a pair of home runs by Javier Baez, and the strong pitching of Jake Arrieta and Wade Davis carried them the rest of the way.
Joe Maddon has now set his lineup for the game:
Albert Almora Jr. – CF
Kyle Schwarber – LF
Kris Bryant – 3B
Anthony Rizzo – 1B
Chicago Baseball
Willson Contreras – C
Addison Russell – SS
Javier Baez – 2B
Ben Zobrist - RF
Jose Quintana – P
Maddon doesn’t generally change up lineups when the team is winning, and we’re banking on that trend continuing here. Schwarber is still making hard contact on the ball, and Baez smacked two home runs on Wednesday night, so he’ll likely remain in the exact same spot that he occupied for that game.
The one wild card here is Ben Zobrist. He has limited regular season experience against Kershaw, but Maddon likely put him into the lineup to get another on-base threat.
