Write your own caption: Reed Johnson of the Chicago Cubs is congratulated by teammate Marlon Byrd after scoring on a sacrifice fly in the third inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates during a game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
Believe it or not, it's only been a little over a week since the Cubs posted their first three-game winning streak of 2011. I know, it seems like a month. But tonight, the Cubs once again have a chance to post their third consecutive win.
You might expect tonight to be a high-scoring game. Why? In addition to the usual pitcher preview, after the jump, I found this tidbit about tonight's starting pitchers:
#Pirates' Correia is 2-6 w/ NL home-worst 6.62 ERA (min. 50 IP) @ PNC. Opposing him Tues. is #Cubs' Wells, 0-2 w/ 7.88 ERA in 5 road starts.less than a minute ago via web 
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Couple that with Randy Wells' ERA in the first inning this year -- 11.25 in 12 starts -- and you might have the makings of a 16-15 game today.
Cubs lineup:
Castro SS, Barney 2B, Ramirez 3B, Peña 1B, Byrd CF, Soto C, Soriano LF, Colvin RF, Wells P
Pirates lineup:
McCutchen cf, Jones rf, Walker 2b, Lee 1b, Ludwick lf, Alvarez 3b, Cedeno ss, McKenry c, Correia p
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Randy Wells faced the Pirates at PNC on May 28. If I were you, I wouldn't click on that link. Anyway, current Pirates are hitting .343 (23-for-67) against Randy, and that includes 4-for-9 (.444) and two home runs from newly-acquired Ryan Ludwick. This does not bode well.
The Cubs defeated Kevin Correia on July 9 at PNC and hit him pretty hard. But in his previous two starts vs. the Cubs this year, Correia had posted a 1.35 ERA in 13.1 innings, winning both of them. Current Cubs are hitting .252 (28-for-111) against Correia with just one home run (Jeff Baker). Naturally, Baker isn't playing tonight. (And no, I wouldn't be playing him ahead of Tyler Colvin -- he could play LF, or any one of several positions.)
Today's game is on CSN Chicago and ROOT Sports Pittsburgh. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 6:05 p.m. CDT and the overflow threads will post at 7 pm, 8 pm and 8:45 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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