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LOS ANGELES — With Corey Seager off the Dodgers’ roster for the NLCS, Charlie Culberson gets the start at shortstop for the Dodgers in Game 1 against the Cubs on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.
NLCS Game 1 lineups
| Pos | Cubs | Pos | Dodgers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Cubs | Pos | Dodgers |
| CF | Jay (L) | CF | Taylor |
| 3B | Bryant | 3B | Turner |
| 1B | Rizzo (L) | 1B | Bellinger (L) |
| C | Contreras | LF | Hernandez |
| LF | Schwarber (L) | 2B | Forsythe |
| SS | Russell | C | Barnes |
| RF | Heyward (L) | RF | Puig |
| 2B | Baez | SS | Culberson |
| P | Quintana | P | Kershaw (L) |
Seager, who suffered a back sprain in Game 3 of the NLDS, received an epidural injection on Tuesday. He still hasn’t been cleared by the training staff to run or hit, which made it an easier decision to leave him off the NLCS roster.
“Having Charlie being able to catch the baseball at short and like him against a left-handed pitcher, it just made sense for us to kind of not have Corey on the roster.”
Culberson is a career .251/.278/.345 hitter in the majors against left-handed pitchers, compared to .217/.267/.308 against righties. In 2017, Culberson hit .300/.319/.527 in 113 against left-handers in Triple-A and the majors combined.
The options with Seager out really aren’t that great, and Culberson is the Dodgers’ best defender at the position. The other shortstop options — Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernandez — are starting in center field and left field in Game 1.
Hernandez, who hit .270/.367/.579 with 25 extra-base hits in 177 plate appearances against lefties in 2017, bats cleanup against Jose Quintana on Saturday, the fourth time he has batted fourth this season.
Against left-hander Clayton Kershaw, there is no Jason Heyward and no Ben Zobrist, with Albert Almora Jr. in center field and Jon Jay in right field. Left-hander Kyle Schwarber is in the lineup though, batting seventh.