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Chicago Cubs vs. Arizona Diamondbacks Preview, Sunday 5/1, 3:10 CT: A Chance For History

By Al Yellon Updated
Write your own caption: what is Mike Quade telling umpire Dan Bellino? (And why does he have sunglasses on his cap during a night game?) (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Write your own caption: what is Mike Quade telling umpire Dan Bellino? (And why does he have sunglasses on his cap during a night game?) (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Getty Images

The last time the Cubs won two consecutive series in Phoenix is... never.

This is the 17th series the Cubs have played in Bank One Ballpark/Chase Field (not including the two division series games in 2007). The results of those series, in order, since 1998, not including the current series:

Two-game sweep, four-game split, won two of three, swept in three, swept in three, lost two of three, swept in three, lost two of three, lost two of three, won two of three, lost two of three, lost two of three, swept in two, lost two of three, lost two of three, lost two of three, three-game sweep.

So, the Cubs have swept two series (one a two-gamer), been swept four times, won two of three twice, lost two of three eight times and split a four-game series once.

This is their second-ever four-game set in Phoenix (the other was in 1998) and they've got a good shot at winning it; if they do they'll have won six of their last seven games in a stadium that has been a house of horrors for the Cubs pretty much since it opened.

One other note: Starlin Castro's 40 hits in April tied the MLB record for most hits in April by a player 21 years old or younger. The other player who did this: Alex Rodriguez.

Cubs lineup:

Fukudome RF, Barney 2B, Castro SS, Ramirez 3B, Soriano LF, Byrd CF, Pena 1B, Soto C, Coleman P

The Diamondbacks lineup was not available at the time of posting.

Today's Starting Pitchers
Casey Coleman
Casey Coleman
Cubs 		vs. Daniel Hudson
Daniel Hudson
Diamondbacks
1-1 W-L 1-4
7.42 ERA 5.64
9 SO 32
8 BB 12
2 HR 2
vs. Ari -- vs. Cubs
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2011 - Casey Coleman 1-1 3 3 0 0 0 0 13.1 19 11 11 2 8 9 7.42 2.03
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2011 - Daniel Hudson 1-4 5 5 0 0 0 0 30.1 30 20 19 2 12 32 5.64 1.38

Neither of today's pitchers has faced the other team before. The only Cub Daniel Hudson has faced is Reed Johnson (0-for-2). Casey Coleman has never faced any member of the Diamondbacks. Is this an advantage for either? Who knows? Hudson has had some decent starts and some bad ones this year. Coleman hasn't pitched in nine days due to the rainout on Wednesday.

Today's game is on WGN and FSN Arizona. 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 Diamondbacks site AZ SnakePit.

Today's first pitch thread will be up at 3 p.m. CDT and the overflow threads will post at 4 pm, 5 pm and 5:45 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to rain delays or extra innings, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

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