Albert Almora Jr. only started once on the Cubs’ winless West Coast road trip and for the third straight game of this series with St. Louis, he wasn’t in the starting lineup Sunday.
Ian Happ again started in center field and hit leadoff. Happ doubled and struck out twice Friday, and singled, walked and struck out Saturday. The bloom was off the rose for Happ, who was struggling going into Sunday. No more sports talk radio debates about trading Javy Baez, so Happ can play full-time.
Happ came into Sunday’s game with a .222/.319/.429 slash line over 19 games and 72 plate appearances.