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The Cubs have yet to defeat the Marlins this season, losing all four games to them (three in Miami plus Tuesday night at Wrigley). There's been nearly one full regular season's worth of games between the two teams since the Marlins entered the NL in 1993 (157 in all); the Cubs are 76-81 against the Marlins all-time, and actually have not lost a season series to them since 2007, when they were 0-6. From 2008-2011 the Cubs went 15-11 against the Marlins, but just 5-6 in Wrigley Field.
All of this is to say it's time to defeat this team, already. Still on alert for the ugly orange jerseys they wear from time to time. I have to admit, the black ones they wore Tuesday night didn't look all that bad.
All of this is for one other reason: there hasn't been a trade of Ryan Dempster, or anyone else, yet, despite rumors that one is "imminent". That word gets thrown around a lot, but rarely seems to actually mean what you'd think it does (as if a trade's going to happen in the next hour or something).
We still, as ever, await developments.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, LaHair RF, Soto C, Barney 2B, Valbuena 3B, Samardzija P
At the time I wrote this post, every lineup for tonight's games was posted online -- except the Marlins'. Get with the program, Ozzie! Check the BCB Twitter feed for the Marlins lineup, if Ozzie ever gets around to releasing it.
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Jeff Samardzija had one of his worst starts of the year April 19 in Miami, giving up eight hits and five walks and not making it out of the fourth inning. Current Marlins are hitting .333 against Shark (19-for-57). Clearly, we are doomed.
Josh Johnson hasn't had a very good year, but he did throw seven solid innings against the Cubs April 17 in Miami. Though that was only three months ago, there are already two players who started for the Cubs that day who aren't on the roster now (Ian Stewart and Marlon Byrd). Current Cubs don't have much of a record off him -- 14-for-50 -- but with three home runs (Reed Johnson, Geovany Soto and, um, Stewart). Maybe we're not doomed after all.
Today's game is on WGN.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Marlins site FishStripes.
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.