This part of this post is necessarily short as I am writing it in the morning, in advance of scheduling it to post at 4:30 pm CT, when hopefully I will have already arrived in Milwaukee after navigating the Chicago area highway construction mess. Hope to see quite a few of you at Miller Park tonight.
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Manny Parra's only career start vs. the Cubs was on August 30, 2007, when he had a curious pitching line of all 3's -- 3 innings, 3 hits, 3 runs, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO. The Cubs won the game 5-4; Ryan Dempster saved it despite walking in a run. Since three players in the starting lineup that day (Jason Kendall, Craig Monroe and Jacque Jones) are no longer Cubs, Mark DeRosa is the only remaining Cub who had one of those three hits -- a two-run single.
Now, Dempster is starting and having an All-Star caliber season. He has already beaten the Brewers twice this year -- on April 3 and April 30, both at Wrigley Field, the latter the game that the Cubs wound up winning 19-5. Kendall, for his part, has always hit Dempster well: 13-for-29 (.442) with 5 walks. Ray Durham is 5-for-8 vs. Dempster (one of the reasons the Brewers got him was to hit Cub pitching, which he usually does well). However, Durham may not play tonight after fouling a ball off his shin last night.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago and FSN Wisconsin, but fortunately for those of you who don't have EI, it's also being picked up nationally on ESPN. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)
MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 7 pm CT and the overflow threads at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.