LOS ANGELES -- The Cubs and Dodgers released their lineups for Game 1 of the National League Championship Series presented by Camping World, and each club continued its trend of setting a new lineup for each postseason game.
Chicago essentially repeated its lineup from Game 5 of the NL Division Series presented by T-Mobile, with Kyle Schwarber replacing Jason Heyward in the outfield and Jonathan Jay moving from left field to right.
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Jay will lead off for the fourth straight game, as the Cubs keep the lineup intact behind him with Kristopher Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras, which has remained the same in their first six postseason games. Albert Almora Jr. is manning center field, followed by Addison Russell, Schwarber and Javier Baez ahead of starter Jose Quintana.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon was looking for the right mix in the outfield to maximize his defense behind the left-handed Quintana, while also seeking to generate offense against Dodgers ace lefty Clayton Kershaw.
"First of all, Albert's going to play," Maddon said of his outfield alignment in Game 1. "Albert's been really good, especially against left-handers. Jon Jay's been our catalyst at the top of the batting order. So you had to pick one. Now with Quintana pitching, you make the strong point about outfield defense, no question. Looking at the whole body of work again, Kershaw slightly -- lefties have gotten to him a little bit this year, but you can't count on anything with this guy. He's that good."
With Kershaw on the mound, the Cubs will be facing a left-handed starter for the third time this postseason. Almora and Baez have started all of those games. After starting Ian Happ and Heyward against lefty starter Giovany Gonzalez in Games 2 and 5 of the NLDS, Schwarber will be the next outfielder to get the call against a southpaw.
"Schwarbs, you guys know, this guy competes," Maddon said. "He's all about this time of the year, too. So I thought it was a good play for tonight. We'll see. With all the lefties that the Dodgers have at their disposal, we get kind of unearthed a little bit with him really seeing lefties better. It could be beneficial to us."
Chicago has four players who have homered off Kershaw, including Rizzo, who went deep when they met earlier in the regular season and also in 2015. Bryant, Contreras, and Baez have also homered off the three-time NL Cy Young Award winner, although Jay is 2-for-15 against Kershaw with 10 strikeouts.
The Dodgers dealt with the loss of All-Star shortstop Corey Seager by moving every hitter from their Game 2 NLDS lineup up one spot and placing infielder Charlie Culberson -- who was just added to the 25-man roster for the series and got the start Saturday at shortstop -- into the No. 8 spot.
"Corey was open to everything, but at the end we decided that with the lefties that they've got potentially going against us and 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," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers will begin their order with Chris Taylor, Justin Turner, Cody Bellinger, Enrique Hernandez, John Forsythe and catcher Austin Barnes for the fourth straight game over Yasmani Grandal. Rounding out the lineup will be Yasiel Puig and Culberson ahead of Kershaw.
Dodgers hitters have limited experience against Quintana, who has spent most of his career in the American League with the White Sox. Forsythe, who played for the Rays last season, is 5-for-11 against Quintana with a homer, while Curtis Granderson (six plate appearances) is the only other Dodgers player to face Quintana more than three times.
Cubs lineup:
RF Jon Jay
3B Kris Bryant
1B Anthony Rizzo
C Willson Contreras
CF Albert Almora Jr.
SS Addison Russell
LF Kyle Schwarber
2B Javier Baez
P Jose Quintana
Dodgers lineup:
CF Chris Taylor
3B Justin Turner
1B Cody Bellinger
LF Enrique Hernandez
2B Logan Forsythe
C Austin Barnes
RF Yasiel Puig
SS Charlie Culberson
P Clayton Kershaw