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In case you missed it in the comments to this morning's recap of Tuesday night's loss, the last time (before Tuesday) that the Cubs had a pitcher hit a solo home run accounting for the only Cubs run of the game was September 16, 1971 against the Mets.
The pitcher was Juan Pizarro. He hit it off future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver. The Cubs won the game 1-0. That's pretty rare; also, Seaver allowed 213 major-league home runs. Just five were hit by pitchers.
So, you saw something rare Tuesday night when Travis Wood's home run accounted for the Cubs' only run. You also saw something not-so-rare: a 2012 Cubs loss. There's a pretty good chance there will be another one tonight; if there is, the Cubs will drop to 31 games under .500 for the first time since 2006.
Good news? Don't have much. It is what it is.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus RF, Valbuena 3B, Castro SS, Soriano LF, LaHair 1B, Castillo C, Jackson CF, Barney 2B, Samardzija P
Josh Vitters AND Anthony Rizzo on the bench?
Brewers lineup:
Aoki CF, Weeks 2B, Braun LF, Ramirez 3B, Hart 1B, Lucroy C, Morgan RF, Segura SS, Fiers P
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Jeff Samardzija started against the Brewers May 13 at Miller Park. He threw five innings, giving up just three hits and one run, but had to be lifted because he had thrown 91 pitches. He's done better about that pitch count issue in more recent outings; he's averaging 100 pitches per start since the All-Star break, but also averaging more than six innings per start in that span.
Mike Fiers has made one career relief appearance vs. the Cubs, throwing one inning on September 21, 2011 at Wrigley Field. He gave up two walks (Starlin Castro, Bryan LaHair) but otherwise was unscored-upon. This year he's been very good as a rotation starter, even taking a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Reds Aug.3 in Milwaukee. In the start after that, he got hit really hard (eight runs in two innings). What can we expect tonight? Probably more of the former than the latter.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago Plus (check your cable or satellite system for the channel).
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. The usual caution is advised.
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. Also please note: due to some under-the-hood changes, the sidebar box with the game thread links is no longer available. It seems you've found them with no problems, but if you haven't been able to find the overflow threads, click the "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" link under "Sections" on the left sidebar. They're all in there.
Discuss amongst yourselves.