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What a concept: a Cubs baseball game played without having to worry about the weather. Three of them, in fact, a weekend at Miller Park. That's good, right?
Maybe not:
The #Brewers have gone 15-2 over the last 17 games against the Cubs at Miller Park, including a current 5-game home winning streak.
— Mike Vassallo (@MikeVassallo13) April 19, 2013
That encompasses the last two years, 2011-12, after the Cubs had put together an excellent mark in Milwaukee from 2007-10: 22-11 (that includes the two wins over the Astros at Miller Park in September 2008).
Of course, the Brewers have in general been a much better team than the Cubs over the last two seasons, going 23-10 overall against the Cubs in 2011-12 combined. The two teams have similar records right now (6-8 for the Brewers, 5-9 for the Cubs) and seem a bit more evenly matched. So who knows?
At least it'll be dry.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Schierholtz RF, Castillo C, Valbuena 3B, Barney 2B, Samardzija P
Brewers lineup:
Aoki RF, Segura SS, Braun LF, Weeks 2B, Lucroy C, Gonzalez 3B, Gomez CF, Betancourt 1B, Estrada P
Still a lot of missing regular Brewers from that lineup; maybe the Cubs can take advantage.
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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Jeff Samardzija made two starts against the Brewers last year, throwing 12 innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out 16. Shark's three starts so far this year have all been decent-to-good; let's hope that continues. At the risk of destroying my pro-DH argument, Miller Park is also the site of Shark's one career home run (September 23, 2009). He hit two home runs in spring training this year. I doubt he hits that many this entire season.
Marco Estrada will be facing the Cubs for the second time in 11 days -- he was the Brewers starter at the Cubs' home opener April 8. He threw seven innings and gave up two runs, and also had a RBI single. His other two starts haven't been quite as good. Maybe seeing him again will be good for Cubs hitters.
Today's game is one of eight this year on WCIU, which means that many of you in the blackout areas won't be able to see it even if you have MLB.TV or Extra Innings.
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.
Here's the scoop on game threads for 2013. You'll find the game preview -- like this one -- posting as the first link in the StoryStream™, which will then contain all the overflow threads and the recap. The recap will also be on the front page as a separate post; once I post a game recap, the stream for each game will be retitled "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.
In general, game previews will post two hours before game time. Exception: for day games after night games, that will usually be 90 minutes.
You will also be able to find the First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in this StoryStream™. As I've done for each regular-season game for several years now, we'll have the First Pitch thread at five minutes before game time (moved up from actual game time per your requests), then an overflow one hour, two hours and 2:45 after game time.
Discuss amongst yourselves.