I have been racking my brains all morning for something, anything positive to write about this team and today's game.
Gotta be honest. Right now, I got nothin'. All the Cubs can do is salvage one game out of this series.
Oh, and guess what? For more good news, it's going to rain again today, possibly with high winds, heavy downpours and hail.
Cubs lineup:
Fukudome rf, Barney 2b, Castro ss, Ramirez 3b, Pena 1b, Soriano lf, Campana cf, Hill c, Dempster p
Pirates lineup:
Tabata lf, Jones rf, McCutchen cf, Walker 2b, Overbay 1b, Doumit c, Wood 3b, Cedeno ss, Karstens p
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After a terrible April, Ryan Dempster has a 3.09 ERA in five starts in May and has allowed only six walks and two home runs in 32 innings pitched this month. He'd better ignore his recent history against the Pirates, though; he was 0-4 against then in 2010 with a 7.23 ERA. The current Pirate who hits him best (and who seems to hit every Cubs pitcher) is Andrew McCutchen (.313, 5-for-16, a double, a HR).
Jeff Karstens made three starts against the Cubs last year, posted a win, a loss and a no-decision, and a 3.00 ERA and issued only four walks in 18 innings. Oddly enough, even with that record, there are several Cubs who hit him hard: Alfonso Soriano (7-for-14, two HR); Blake DeWitt (6-for-9, two doubles) and Koyie Hill (6-for-11, two doubles, one HR). The way things are going, those guys will all go 0-for-4 today.
Also, doesn't Karstens have weird-looking eyebrows?
Today's game is on WGN and ROOT Sports in Pittsburgh. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 1:15 p.m. CDT and the overflow threads will post at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.