The box above says the temperature will be near 90 with the wind blowing out, but when it's this hot in Houston, the roof usually starts out closed -- then it gets opened in the middle innings, just in time for the bottom of an inning. Nevertheless, the Cubs have played fairly well in the Juice Box in recent years, although they lost two of three in the first series here back in May.
Unrelated to the Cubs note: the 2009 WBC finals will be held at Dodger Stadium.
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Ted Lilly has been up and down this year. His last start was a "down" one, but he may have been affected by the foul ball that hit the little boy's head at Wrigley Field last week. Fortunately, the kid is OK, and now Lilly has to step up and be the sort of pitcher he was all last year. In his last four road starts he is 2-1, 1.98 and handles both Lance Berkman (1-for-11) and Miguel Tejada (4-for-27) well.
The one game the Cubs won in Houston so far this year was against Brian Moehler on May 19. The Cubs had 7 hits in 5 innings off Moehler, including a HR by Geovany Soto. Jim Edmonds, who was playing in only his 2nd game as a Cub on that day, usually hits Moehler well (12-for-34, .353/.421/.912, 4 doubles, 5 HR). Ted Lilly was the starting and winning pitcher in that May 19 game.
Today's game is on WGN, so all of you can see it (at least, if you have WGN), and on FSN Houston, so it should be available on EI, and at the MLB.com Mediacenter.
MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)
MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Today's first pitch thread posts at 7:00 pm CT and the overflow comment threads will post at 8:15 and 9:15 pm CT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.