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Chicago Cubs vs. Miami Marlins Preview, Wednesday 4/18, 6:10 CT

By Al Yellon
Steve Clevenger of the Chicago Cubs slides into home safely as John Buck of the Miami Marlins applies the tag during a game at Marlins Park in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Steve Clevenger of the Chicago Cubs slides into home safely as John Buck of the Miami Marlins applies the tag during a game at Marlins Park in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Getty Images

I don't know what to say, really, about this game. I could write some things about Carlos Zambrano, like everyone else seems to be doing, but what's the point? He's not pitching in this series; maybe the Cubs will see him when the Marlins come to Wrigley in July.

Otherwise, it's getting a bit depressing. The Cubs will see a longtime foe on the mound tonight; more on that after the jump.

TV icon Dick Clark died today at the age of 82. So maybe you can talk about that, even though he had nothing to do with baseball or the Cubs. It's OK. We could use the distraction.

Cubs lineup:

Johnson rf, Barney 2b, Castro ss, Soriano lf, Baker 1b, Stewart 3b, Soto c, Byrd cf, Garza p

Marlins lineup:

Reyes SS, Bonifacio CF, Ramirez 3B, Morrison LF, Stanton RF, Sanchez 1B, Buck C, Murphy 2B, Buehrle P
Today's Starting Pitchers
Matt Garza
Matt Garza
Cubs		 vs. Mark Buehrle
Mark Buehrle
Marlins
1-0 W-L 0-2
1.23 ERA 3.65
14 SO 7
3 BB 2
1 HR 2
vs. Mia -- vs. Cubs
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Matt Garza 1-0 2 2 0 0 0 0 14.2 8 2 2 1 3 14 1.23 .75
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Mark Buehrle 0-2 2 2 0 0 0 0 12.1 15 5 5 2 2 7 3.65 1.38

Matt Garza faced the White Sox twice last year -- both against Mark Buehrle. On June 21 at the Cell, Garza threw five innings in a loss. Two weeks later, on July 2 at Wrigley Field, the White Sox also won, although Garza threw a complete game in that loss. Current Marlins are hitting .328 against Garza, though in a somewhat small sample size (22-for-67).

Mark Buehrle, before this year, had faced the Cubs more than any other NL team -- 13 career starts (his most against any other NL team was five). He's got a 4.15 ERA and 1.287 WHIP in 84⅔ lifetime innings against the Cubs. Current Cubs are hitting .225 (41-for-182) against Buehrle, although if you take out David DeJesus' numbers (14-for-78), that average jumps to .260.

Today's game is on WGN. 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 Marlins site Fish Stripes.

Today's first pitch thread will post at 6:10 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 7:10, 8:10 and 8:55 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

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