Are you ready? I am. (My playoff tickets came today and I'm excited!)
Since we're on the subject of images/photos, let me NOT forget today's Gratuitous Geo Photo (even though he may not play tonight):
| Today's Starting Pitchers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Z has some makin' up to do -- to Lou, and to the rest of us for his poor performance last Friday. Yes, I know he had other things on his mind, and my condolences to him on the loss of his grandmother. He probably should have had his start pushed back, especially since Lou has reworked the playoff rotation anyway. In any case, this is an important tuneup for Z. He is 4-1, 2.92 lifetime in 7 appearances (6 starts) vs. the Mets, the last of which was April 21 at Wrigley Field, when he limited NY to four singles and a double in seven innings. He handles the Mets' best hitters pretty well -- Carlos Delgado (.250, 4-for 16); Carlos Beltran (1-for-13), David Wright (2-for-13).
Oliver Perez last faced the Cubs on April 15, 2005 when he was still with the Pirates, so any recent performance comparisons are irrelevant. Lou has been resting regulars, so maybe today would be the day to give D-Lee (2-for-11 vs. Perez) the day off, and definitely the day to play A-Ram (4-for-11), DeRo (3-for-6, 2 doubles) and Jim Edmonds (3-for-8, a HR).
Note that although Perez and Z have thrown essentially the same number of innings, it has taken Perez three more starts to get there.
Today's game is on WCIU and SNY -- but fortunately for those of you outside of Chicago, ESPN has picked up the game so it'll be seen nationally. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
As always, you can find all the game threads after this one, 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.