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The Second Third Of The Season Begins: Cubs vs. Astros Preview, Saturday 6/5, 6:05 CT

By Al Yellon

The first third of the 2010 season is in the books for the Cubs with a pretty awful record: 24-30, with the last four losses being consecutive. I could post a whole buncha stuff here about comebacks, winning streaks, yada yada, but how much of it are you going to believe?

The bottom line is: I still think this team is pretty good, way better than their record. They came back from a bigger deficit later in the year in 2007. But they had better start showing results on the field soon, or changes will have to come.

That's really about it. Win, please. It's been a week since the last win. It's getting hard to remember.

Today's Starting Pitchers
Ryan Dempster
Ryan Dempster
Cubs 		vs. Roy Oswalt
Roy Oswalt
Astros
3-5 W-L 3-7
3.72 ERA 2.78
72 SO 72
25 BB 20
10 HR 7
vs. Hou -- vs. Cubs
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2010 - Ryan Dempster 3-5 12 11 0 0 0 0 77.1 60 32 32 10 25 72 3.72 1.10
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2010 - Roy Oswalt 3-7 11 11 0 0 0 0 71.1 57 24 22 7 20 72 2.78 1.08

Roy Oswalt threw seven shutout innings against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on April 17, one of his three wins this year. The Astros bullpen (well, Brandon Lyon) nearly blew that game, too. Current Cubs have hit 11 HR in 292 AB off Oswalt. Now, do you really think I posted that stat thinking someone would hit one tonight? Just wishin' and hopin'.

Ryan Dempster left the game on April 18 at Wrigley Field having allowed no runs and nursing a 2-0 lead. In one of his few bad outings this year, Carlos Marmol allowed a Dempster baserunner to score and then blew the lead with one out in the ninth; the Cubs lost in 10. Current Astros are hitting .300 (65-for-217) against Dempster with eight HR. Clearly, we're doomed.

Cubs lineup via tweet from Carrie:

2b riot, rf colvin, 1b lee, cf byrd, 3b ramy, lf sori, ss castro, c hill, p demp

Astros lineup in this tweet from Astros beat writer Alyson Footer. You'll have to click on the Twitpic to see it (it's a photo of the lineup board).

Today's game is on CSN Chicago and FSN Houston. 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 Astros site The Crawfish Boxes.

Today's first pitch thread will be up at 6 pm CDT, and the overflows will post at 7, 8 and 8:45 pm CDT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

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