See the photo attached to this post?
Wrigley Field won't look like that today! The sun is shining. This is a rare enough occurrence in Chicago this spring that it's worth mentioning. The Cubs have suffered through 12 games already this year (home and road combined) with either a rain delay or postponement. I don't have exact numbers, but it seems like that's about as many as the last three or four years combined. Last year the Cubs had no rainouts and only one or two games where it rained at all.
Enough already. Finally, it's a pleasant day to play baseball. (Although, along with the "partly sunny" today, there's a chance of storms later.)
Otherwise, not much is new in Cubs Land since the near-midnight ending of Wednesday night's game. The Cubs could win this series with a victory this afternoon. Small triumphs, and all.
Cubs lineup:
rf Fukudome, ss Castro, 2b DeWitt, 3b Ramirez, 1b Pena, lf Soriano, c Soto, cf Campana, p Garza
Brewers lineup:
Weeks 2b, Morgan cf, Braun lf, Fielder 1b, McGehee 3b, Hart rf, Betancourt ss, Kottaras c, Greinke p
| Today's Starting Pitchers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Matt Garza's only career start against the Brewers was April 9 in Milwaukee, where he gave up five runs in 5.2 innings and struck out eight. He didn't give up any home runs -- in fact, he has still allowed just two this year -- but did give up two doubles and a triple. Here's hoping for better results today. The only time Garza faced Zack Greinke was in Kansas City on September 30, 2010; he gave up three runs in seven innings, striking out six, but Greinke was just a little better and the Royals won 3-2.
Meanwhile, Greinke has never faced the Cubs, having spent his entire career with the Royals before this year. The only Cub he has significant time against is Carlos Pena -- who is 3-for-27 with only two walks. The walk numbers for Greinke are impressive this season -- only seven in 48 innings. With a hackalicious lineup like the Cubs', this game could go quickly.
Today's game is on WGN and FSN Wisconsin. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. As always, be careful over there.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 1:15 pm 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.