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Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres Preview, Wednesday 5/30, 1:20 CT

By Al Yellon
Or, write your own caption: Starlin Castro of the Chicago Cubs is pulled off the bag on a force play against the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)
Or, write your own caption: Starlin Castro of the Chicago Cubs is pulled off the bag on a force play against the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)
Getty Images

We don't have much this year. So contemplate this:

The last time the Cubs won three games in a row was September 10-12, 2011 -- the last two of a series in New York against the Mets, followed by the first game of a series in Cincinnati against the Reds.

The last time the Cubs swept a series was August 1-4, 2011, against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.

The last time the Cubs swept a series at Wrigley Field was July 22-24, 2011, against the Astros.

They can erase all of those "lasts" with a win this afternoon.

Like I said, it's not much. But it's better than losing.

Cubs lineup:

DeJesus RF, Castro SS, Mather CF, LaHair 1B, Soriano LF, Stewart 3B, Barney 2B, Clevenger C, Dempster P

Hooray! A Steve Clevenger sighting!

Today's Starting Pitchers
Ryan Dempster
Ryan Dempster
Cubs		 vs. Anthony Bass
Anthony Bass
Padres
0-3 W-L 2-5
2.14 ERA 3.55
50 SO 3
55 BB 21
3 HR 6
vs. SD -- vs. Cubs
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Ryan Dempster 0-3 8 8 0 0 0 0 54.2 43 15 13 3 15 50 2.14 1.06
W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Anthony Bass 2-5 11 9 1 0 0 0 58.1 51 28 23 6 21 55 3.55 1.23

Remember that fantastic baseball day, the final day of the 2011 regular season, September 28? Teams were making the playoffs and being eliminated and putting up amazing individual performances. While all that good stuff was going on, Ryan Dempster was getting pounded by the Padres in San Diego, giving up a three-run homer to Nick Hundley and a grand slam to Will Venable. Overall, current Padres are hitting .340 (33-for-97) against him with four home runs.

One day before the Padres pounded Dempster, Anthony Bass held the Cubs to one run in five innings, but the Cubs won the game off San Diego's bullpen. That's the only appearance Bass has against the Cubs, so no current Cub has more than three career AB against him; altogether current Cubs are 5-for-12, an almost irrelevant sample size. Bass has pitched reasonably well this season, although he got hit pretty hard by the Mets in his last outing.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago.

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 Padres site Gaslamp Ball.

Today's first pitch thread will post at 1:20 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 2:20, 3:20 and 4:05 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

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