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Here's how unusual Tuesday night's win was:
- It was the Cubs' second win in a row. They have done this only five other times this year, plus the one three-game winning streak (the sweep of the Padres).
- It was the Cubs' first win over the Tigers since July 7, 2001 in Detroit. (Much amusement value in those lineups.)
- It was the Cubs' first win over the Tigers at Wrigley Field since June 2, 2000, which until Tuesday was their only win over Detroit at Wrigley. (More amusement value in those lineups. Would you have guessed on that day that the only player in that game who would be active 12 years later would be Scott Downs?)
I mention all this because the occurrence of "winning" might not happen for the rest of this series, or the rest of the homestand, for that matter. Enjoy it while you can.
Cubs lineup:
Campana CF, Castro SS, DeJesus RF, Soriano LF, LaHair 1B, Clevenger C, Barney 2B, Stewart 3B, Garza P
Tigers lineup:
Jackson CF, Boesch RF, Cabrera 3B, Fielder 1B, Young LF, Peralta SS, Laird C, Santiago 2B, Porcello P
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Matt Garza has experience vs. the Tigers from his AL days: eight starts, 4.60 ERA, 1.21 WHIP. Current Tigers are hitting .266 (29-for-109) against him with three home runs, though one of those is by Victor Martinez, who still isn't back from knee surgery, and another by Ryan Raburn, who is currently hitting for Triple-A Toledo. Miguel Cabrera has the other one, and he's hit homers off a lot of pitchers. Maybe there's hope.
The Tigers had higher hopes for Rick Porcello when they brought him to the major leagues at age 20 in 2009. He's turned out to be a fourth- or fifth-starter type after finishing third in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2009, a year when he faced the Cubs on June 24 in Detroit (check out who played third base for the Cubs that day). He's faced David DeJesus quite a bit from his AL days -- DDJ is 8-for-20 against Porcello. Apart from that, who knows what we'll see?
Today's game is on WCIU, which means many of you won't be able to see it. You might consider yourselves fortunate.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Tigers site Bless You Boys.
Today's first pitch thread will post at 7:05 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 8:05, 9:05 and 9:50 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.