Euthoniel

Makes up for the rocket line out in his 2nd at bat.

Zobrist's 2017 line against LHP was .179/.261/.292, basically one step above pitcher level. All his hits in the post season have been against right-handed pitchers. He's a bad defender in RF (-6 DRS in 216 innings in 2017, dreadful). I'd have gone with Happ, but at least Heyward could be justified with defense. Starting Zobrist is dumb no matter how you look at it. He's the worst offensive option against a LHP and the worst defender. Still, here's to hoping he proves me wrong.

I probably would have preferred Happ over Schwarber. I know Kershaw has been better against right-handed hitters this year, but greater emphasis should be put on his career line in which he has been slightly tougher on left-handed batters, and Schwarber himself has been bad against lefties: .159/.270/.312 in 159 PA. But other than that I love the lineup and I hope Schwarber proves me wrong.

His hits have all come batting left-handed though, and he's been near pitcher level territory batting right-handed this year (.179/.261/.292). Some have speculated his wrist injury comes into play when batting right-handed. As others have said, once Gio is out, he'll probably get in the game somehow.

I'll go ahead and say it, Heyward should be playing CF in a Schwarber/Heyward/Happ outfield.

Neither one looks good in CF to me. So far it seems like there have been a couple of balls Happ should have caught in CF. Small sample size, of course, but in center Happ is at -1 DRS in 19 innings, Jay is at -4 DRS in 79.2 innings. Happ looks plenty good for a corner outfielder though, I just don't think he has the defense for CF as his primary position. Statistically, only Heyward has been a plus center fielder this year (2 DRS in 66.1 innings) and for his career (9 DRS in 470.1 innings), even Almora is at -1 DRS. Maybe they're just trying to see if Happ is good enough to backup CF.

+Jason Heyward.

Man, we're having a lot of minor issues at the same time. Heyward is due to come off the DL on Tuesday I think, I hope his sprained finger is healed.

Hopefully the walks were just nerves, if that's what Butler's stuff looked like in the minors you can see why they decided to give him this shot at the rotation.

Small strikezone today.

Left-handed batters hit better against him both in the minors and majors, although not a huge difference.

I recall Joe had toyed with the idea of putting Heyward in left and Schwarber in right in this field because left field is so big, if he had done that we might have saved a couple of those runs, possibly all three. Although hindsight is 20/20, so meh.

Heyward now has the highest average exit velocity on the team. He's 0.1 MPH behind Bryce Harper.

Not sure if Korea tests for PED's, but according this article, they tested him after last night's game. Even if he does test positive it will be a few weeks before we know due to the appeal process. Marte tested positive in spring training. Could always just be a hot streak plus luck.

That hit at like the base of the wall way into the corner. Zobrist almost got there, I have to imagine Heyward has an additional two or three steps on Zobrist who clearly had a slow start. Reminds me of this catch of Heyward's against Trout. I think that one was a little closer to the wall though, so you might be right.