Chicago Cubs first baseman Trey Mancini is not in the lineup on Friday afternoon against right-hander Jack Flaherty and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Mancini will sit for the matinee after he went 1-for-9 with a double and 4 strikeouts over the last three games. Cody Bellinger will shift to first base while Mike Tauchman will start in center field and bat leadoff. Nico Hoerner will bat a spot lower after he led off Thursday's series opener. Seiya Suzuki will hit fifth and Yan Gomes will bat seventh as the Cubs' designated hitter. Miguel Amaya will catch for Justin Steele and hit ninth.
Tauchman has a $6,000 salary on the single-game slate and numberFire's models project him for 9.6 FanDuel points. Bellinger ($9,500) is projected to lead the contest with 11.7 FanDuel points. Per our MLB Heat Map, the Cubs' implied total is 4.35 and the game total is 8.5. Flaherty has a 4.29 ERA and 4.61 xERA this season, with a 35.0% hard-hit rate, 22.2% strikeout rate, and 11.8% walk rate (bottom 12th percentile of MLB).
Source: MLB.com