In Thursday night MLB action, the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets will open up a four-game series from Citi Field. On Wednesday, Chicago failed in their attempt to sweep host Pittsburgh and fell by a 2-1 final score. The Cubs are six games above .500 overall and trail Milwaukee by 4.5 games for the NL Central Division lead.
Chicago skipper Joe Maddon will turn to southpaw Jose Quintana (5-4 4.78 ERA) on Thursday night. Through 52 plus innings, Quintana has walked 27 batters and allowed eight home runs.
The New York Mets enter this series with plenty of injury concerns and coming off a split of their most recent four-game series in Atlanta. On Wednesday, Brandon Nimmo and Adrian Gonzalez drove in a pair of runs each to power the Mets to a 4-1 victory over the Braves. New York is a game above .500 overall and trails Washington by 4.5 games for the NL East Division lead.
Twenty-eight year old righty Seth Lugo (1-1 2.48 ERA) will make his first start of the season for the Mets. Lugo, who has made 20 relief appearances, has struck out 34 batters and owns a 1.01 WHIP in 32 plus innings of work.
