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Pregame Thread: Cubs vs. Phillies, Saturday 8/30, 2:55 CT


Next Game

Philadelphia Phillies
@ Chicago Cubs

Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, 2:55 PM CDT
Wrigley Field

Brett Myers vs Ted Lilly

Sunny. Winds blowing out to center field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game Time temperature: Around 85.

Complete Coverage >


Today is my son Mark's Bar Mitzvah. And in honor of that, the Fox-TV wizard has decided to send the Cubs/Phillies game to 90% of the country (the other game: Orioles/Rays) -- that's about the highest percentage I've seen for a Saturday Fox game, nearly national coverage. And even better, the announcers are Dick Stockton, Eric Karros and Ken Rosenthal -- yeah, I know, we're all not crazy about Stockton, but Eric Karros is one of the better up-and-coming announcers Fox has. The list below contains the TV markets that are NOT carrying the Cubs game:

Baltimore MD, Bangor ME, Boston MA, Burlington VT, Fort Myers FL, Gainesville FL, Hartford CT, Orlando FL, Portland ME, Presque Isle ME, Providence RI, Salisbury MD, Springfield MA, Tallahassee FL, Tampa FL Yes, that's it. Unless you are in Baltimore, Tampa, northern or central Florida, or much of New England, you'll see the Cubs and Phillies today.

Today's Starting Pitchers
Ted Lilly
T. Lilly
Cubs
vs. Brett Myers
B. Myers
Phillies
13-7 W-L 7-10
4.25 ERA 4.49
155 SO 126
57 BB 57
29 HR 26
vs. Phi -- vs. Cubs

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2008 - Ted Lilly 13-7 28 28 0 0 0 0 168.0 163 82 79 29 57 155 4.23 1.31


W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2008 - Brett Myers 7-10 24 24 1 1 0 0 150.1 154 80 75 26 57 126 4.49 1.40

Brett Myers was so bad earlier this year that the Phillies sent him to Triple-A. Since his return he's been lights-out: 4-1, 1.66. Lifetime vs. the Cubs he's 6-2, 2.67; Derrek Lee (who we would ALL like to see start hitting with authority again) is 12-for-25 with 3 HR against Myers. He beat the Cubs on April 11 in Philadelphia, though he gave up three solo HR, to D-Lee, A-Ram and Alfonso Soriano, one of three HR Myers has given up to A-Sor.

The bad early-season Ted Lilly lost to the Phillies in Philadelphia on April 12, allowing homers to Pedro Feliz and Ryan Howard. But he is 4-1, 3.25 since the All-Star break and 8-2, 3.48 in 15 starts since June 10. His only real problem this year has been the long ball -- he's allowed 29, leading the NL. If he can stay away from that, it should be a fine afternoon.

Today's game is on Fox, as noted above. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter for Saturday's night games.

MLB.com Gameday

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 2:45 pm CT, and the overflow comment threads will post at 3:45, 4:45 and 5:30 pm CT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.