What It Means:

The Pirates loaded the lineup with left-handed bats as Walker is batting second with Pedro Alvarez fifth and Travis Snider sixth. Gregory Polanco, another lefty hitter, will bat leadoff.

Cubs' starter Jason Hammel doesn't have drastic platoon splits, though his xFIP against lefties (3.72) is higher than against righties (3.30). Additionally, his ground-ball rate decreases to 33.5 percent against lefties as opposed to 40.7 percent against righties with most of the batted balls skewing toward line drives. Expect the Pirates to reverse this and go righty-heavy in the second game with Jon Lester starting for the Cubs.