:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/6958874/144496638.jpg)
One thing I'd have liked to see this afternoon is Alfonso Soriano NOT in the lineup. Unfortunately, I'm not getting my wish:
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus RF, Campana CF, Castro SS, LaHair 1B, Soriano LF, Stewart 3B, Castillo C, Barney 2B, Maholm P
This would have been a perfect time to give Soriano a day off -- day game after night game. Unfortunately, Dale Sveum doesn't agree. Perhaps Sveum might agree that his bunting fetish has gone a little too far. Maybe the Cubs could actually get a decent lead, as they had last night, and hold it? Too much to ask?
Cardinals lineup:
Furcal ss, Schumaker cf, Holliday lf, Craig rf, Berkman 1b, Molina c, Carpenter 3b, Greene 2b, Lohse p
The Cardinals will be without Carlos Beltran again today, and are giving David Freese the day off. Sounds like a good time to take advantage of a less-than-100% St. Louis lineup.
Players hate two-game series. Because of the current divisional setup, every year we have one week's worth of the schedule with these series; perhaps next year, with realignment, these could be eliminated. In the meantime, let's hope for the sweep today; then the Cubs have more than 24 hours until the next game, Wednesday night at Wrigley Field against the Phillies.
| Today's Starting Pitchers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
After a horrific start to this season, Paul Maholm has posted an ERA of 1.07 and a WHIP of 0.83 in his last four starts -- he's been excellent over that span, covering 25⅓ innings. Unfortunately, one of the two horrific starts was against the Cardinals, exactly one month ago today, April 15 in St. Louis. He gave up a three-run homer to Yadier Molina that day, among other things. Let's hope he learned from that outing.
Kyle Lohse missed both the earlier Cubs/Cardinals series this season; he hasn't pitched against the Cubs since this solid outing on Sept. 24, 2011. Possible good news: current Cubs are hitting .358 (43-for-120) against him with four home runs, three by Alfonso Soriano and one by David DeJesus, who is 8-for-16 lifetime against Lohse.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva El Birdos.
Today's first pitch thread will post at 12:45 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 1:45, 2:45 and 3:30 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.