Cubs vs. Marlins Preview, Friday 4/26, 6:10 CT: Going For Two Straight

Remember a couple of years ago when the Cubs didn't win three in a row until late July? Well, we're now almost four weeks into the season and this year's Cubs still haven't won consecutive games. So that's what they're shooting for this evening. More on tonight's game below; first, a couple of notes.

• It looks like the Cubs are after Mark Appel or Jonathan Gray with the No. 2 pick, according to this quote from Dale Sveum:

  "Obviously, the two big boys, Appel and Gray, if those guys keep the velocity where it is and everything’s going good, I think it’s hard not to take one of them guys," Sveum said.

  Since Sveum isn't making the pick, who knows? He was speaking after having watched film of many of the top candidates with Theo and Jed. There are still six weeks until the draft; who knows what might really happen?

• Another excellent read from Doug Glanville, based on the Quentin/Greinke brawl, in which he explains in detail how baseball players go about their work.
• See that small crowd at Marlins Park last night? A lot of them probably got in for free.

Cubs lineup:

Sappelt CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Castillo C, Hairston RF, Ransom 3B, Barney 2B, Feldman P

Oh, joy. Once again, the all-righthanded lineup (except for Anthony Rizzo) vs. LHP that never, ever works.

Marlins lineup:

Pierre LF, Polanco 3B, Stanton RF, Mahoney 1B, Solano 2B, Brantly C, Coghlan CF, Valaika SS, LeBlanc P

Today's Starting Pitchers

Scott Feldman Cubs vs. Wade LeBlanc Marlins vs. Mia -- vs. Cubs

Scott Feldman appears to be this year's Chris Volstad. They're both tall, and they both seem to have one inning in which they come unhinged. I keep waiting for that to change. Perhaps I wait in vain. Feldman has never faced the Marlins; current Marlins are a small-sample-size 8-for-45 (.178) against him with no home runs. Maybe there's hope. (Maybe someday Feldman will smile, too.)

Wade LeBlanc has been awful this year; he has a 1.875 WHIP, 6.27 ERA and hasn't made it out of the fifth inning in either of his last two starts. Current Cubs, though, are another small-sample-size 6-for-35 (.171) against him with no home runs.

So the real question is: will either team score tonight?

Today's game is on WGN, the last WGN game until May 5.

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 Marlins site FishStripes.

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.