In this space, where normally you'd see some sort of comment from me about tonight's game or some other baseball-related note, I'm going to shamelessly plug my friend Will Byington's new book, "We Are Cubs Fans", which contains some of Will's great photography and also reproductions of hand-written notes Will got people to write, talking about what it means to them to be a Cubs fan.
Will's going to be on the ABC-7 Sunday Morning News tomorrow about 8:15 am -- tune in if you're in the Chicago area.
Now, on to tonight's game!
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It's hard to know what to expect from this pitching matchup. Sanchez missed more than a year after shoulder surgery and has made just three starts since returning. He had a good outing five days ago vs. St. Louis, but the Cardinals won anyway. He has never faced the Cubs. LH batters hit .400 vs. Sanchez, so Lou's going to start four of them tonight, including giving Derrek Lee the day off and starting Daryle Ward at 1B.
Sean Marshall has done a very good job in relief this season -- he's 1-0, 3.10 in 20 relief innings. In three starts he's 1-2, 4.08. He got hit pretty hard when he started two years ago in Miami, but a lot of those Marlins aren't on the team any more. Dan Uggla has gone 4-for-11 with two doubles vs. Sean; no other current Marlin has more than 8 career AB against him.
Today's game is on WGN and the Sunshine Network -- and it's after 6 pm CT, so EI will cover it. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Once again, a reminder that you can find the overflow comment threads, including the first pitch thread, on the right sidebar of both the front page and any interior page in the box headed "RECENT STORIES IN GAME THREADS". Today's first pitch thread posts at 6 pm CT, and the overflow comment threads will post at 7 pm, 8 pm and 8:45 pm CT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.