Not only are tickets available for tonight's Cubs/White Sox game at the Cell, a lot of good seats are still out there, including tickets in all price levels. On StubHub, about 1100 tickets are for sale, many below face value.
There are likely several reasons for this, including the performance of the teams and the fact that this series is being played on weeknights (it's the first Cubs/Sox series ever where all three games are night games). But the biggest reason has to be the current economy and the prices of the tickets. Despite some large crowds at certain interleague games over the weekend, many teams still aren't drawing (the cross-state Marlins/Rays matchup drew about 63,000 -- half what the Cubs and Yankees did at Wrigley Field).
Maybe if one or both of these teams were in contention, sales would be more brisk. Absent that, prices are way too high for most of these tickets. They're likely to have about the same size crowd tonight as last night, maybe even a bit smaller.
Cubs lineup:
CF Johnson, SS Castro, DH Baker, 3B Ramirez, C Soto, LF Soriano, 1B Pena, RF Montanez, 2B LeMahieu
White Sox lineup:
Pierre LF, Vizquel 2B, Quentin RF, Konerko 1B, Dunn DH, Ramirez SS, Pierzynski C, Rios CF, Morel 3B
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Both of tonight's pitchers have thrown no-hitters in the past.
Matt Garza, though, has not had success against the White Sox. In four career starts he's got a 6.87 ERA, although he did throw six shutout innings against them when he was with the Twins, on July 6, 2007. The two Sox who hit him best are Paul Konerko (3-for-8, one HR) and A.J. Pierzynski (5-for-8, one HR). Let's hope for better results tonight.
Mark Buehrle has dominated the Cubs in recent years; he hasn't lost to them since 2007 and threw 6.2 scoreless innings against them at Wrigley Field on June 12, 2010. Reed Johnson has pounded Buehrle in the past -- 10-for-27 (.370) with three doubles. Reed's been hot lately, so let's hope for more of that.
Today's game is on WGN (Len & Bob) and CSN Chicago (Sox announcers). Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox. Please be careful over there, though.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 7 pm CDT and the overflow threads will post at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.