It's Reverse Psychology Day!
This matchup is hopeless. Hill is useless, and his numbers in his first 2006 start were even worse than he put up a year ago.
Schmidt is the Giants' best pitcher, has a 9-5 lifetime record with a 2.77 ERA (18 starts) against the Cubs, and has not lost to them since 2000.
Hopeless.
(looking around)
Did it work?
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Other news today: though the new bleachers and ballpark have been open for over a month, work on the project continues. David went by and took these photos yesterday:
Left: dirt and guides have been installed, presumably to plant the ivy that's going on the outer walls. Right: someone pushed in the gate on the knothole. I drove by there today; it's been repaired.
(as always, click on thumbnail to view full-size in new browser window. If you are using IE, you may have to click the lower-right corner of the image in the new window to expand it to its full size; in Firefox click anywhere on the image. Photos by David Sameshima)
About the other guy some people will be paying attention to tonight: Barry Bonds has not homered off the Cubs since he hit two off Matt Clement on April 30, 2003. Bonds' numbers against the Cubs are lower than they are for any other NL team -- .249/.371/.490, and the .371 OBA is the best that ANY team has held him to. He has never faced Hill.
Bizarre coincidence: when Hank Aaron hit his 714th and 715th home runs for the Braves in 1974, the on-deck hitter each time was... Dusty Baker.
Let the circus begin!