On To Home Game Two: Cubs vs. Brewers Preview, Wednesday 4/14, 1:20 CT

With yesterday's off day, there isn't a whole lot of Cubs news; Derrek Lee will probably miss today's game with the thumb problem he aggravated on Monday; the link also mentions that Ted Lilly will throw for Iowa tonight and probably go 60 pitches. He'll likely have one more rehab start before rejoining the rotation, although Ted has already mentioned he'd like to return sooner. We'll see.

Other notes:

• Do you think Lou doesn't have the fire to win any more? Think again.
• There were two great defensive plays in the Pirates/Giants game late last night that you may not have seen: by pitcher Paul Maholm and then by 1B Garrett Jones -- that one ended the game.
• Toronto's Ricky Romero made one mistake last night and it cost him a no-hitter. That makes two no-hit games taken into the eighth inning already this year (CC Sabathia had one on Saturday). Was it jinxed by Romero's own catcher? (Extra points to Yahoo for the picture of ADAMLIND! comforting Romero in that link. Then, points removed for mentioning "Cubs" and "goats" in a single sentence.)
• Today's game will feature a high temperature near 80 degrees, more than 20 degrees above average. Tomorrow, just about the same. Nice to have June-like weather this early.

Today's Starting Pitchers

Randy Wells Cubs vs. Dave Bush Brewers 1-0 W-L 0-0 0.00 ERA 4.76 1 SO 6 2 BB 2 0 HR 1 vs. Mil -- vs. Cubs

Dave Bush has 15 starts against the Cubs (16 total appearances), his most against any team. And for the most part, Cubs teams have hit him at will -- lifetime, he's 2-8 with a 5.13 ERA and 12 HR allowed in 94.2 innings. Kosuke Fukudome -- who generally hits well early in the season -- is 8-for-17 (.471) in his career vs. Bush, with four doubles, a HR and four walks. And just what is Bush looking at in that photo?

Randy Wells was 1-1 in three starts vs. the Brewers last year. Ryan Braun hit him pretty well (4-for-9), but Braun hits just about everyone well. Brewers backup OF Jody Gerut is 3-for-5 with a HR and four RBI against Randy, who threw very well in his first start of the year against the Braves last week.

Back on cable today: CSN Chicago and FSN Wisconsin. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. Be careful over there, though.

This afternoon's first pitch thread will be up at 1:15 pm CDT, and the overflows will post at 2:15, 3:15 and 4 pm CDT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.