The Cubs will, potentially, be part of baseball history tonight as the Cubs/Phillies game will be the first to be eligible to use replay technology for disputed HR calls. There are two other first-games-of-series tonight, Twins/A's and Rangers/Angels, that will be eligible, but both of those start after the Cubs game. The rest of baseball will start with this tomorrow.
Of course, we may not see any such disputed calls for weeks or months. I'm all for doing this, as long as it is limited to HR calls only. Presuming they can do it as they claim:
[MLB VP of Baseball Operations Jimmie Lee] Solomon expects the whole process, from initiation to official ruling, to take approximately two and a half minutes. And he doesn't anticipate it to slow the pace of the game.... it should run smoothly.
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Cole Hamels shut the Cubs out for seven innings and gave up only one hit in a 7-1 Phillies win on April 12. He's one of the best lefties in the majors and also won two starts vs. the Cubs last year. Only Ryan Theriot (5-for-11, a HR) and Aramis Ramirez (4-for-11, a triple, a HR) have had any success vs. Hamels among current Cubs. The one part of Hamels' game that shows a bit of weakness is homers -- he's allowed 24, tied for sixth-most in the NL.
Ryan Dempster is 3-3, 4.98 in 12 career starts vs. Philly. To which I say: "So what?" The last of those starts was more than five years ago on July 28, 2003. Only Jimmy Rollins and Pat Burrell remain from that Phillies team. Both of those players have hit Dempster well, so if he can keep them down, he should have pretty good luck against the rest of the Phils.
Today's game is on WGN and CSN Philly, so EI viewers get Harry Kalas & Co. 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 7 pm CT, and the overflow comment threads will post at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.