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It's 80 degrees in Chicago! That might not sound spectacular during the baseball season, but it's been a long stretch of cold weather this spring. It's the first time the temperature has reached 80 since September 12, 2012, 229 days without summerlike warmth.
The wind should be blowing out again, and I suspect it'll be a bit more humid than it was Monday night. When you have conditions like this, the ball can get a lot more lift. Two home runs were hit Monday night, neither of which needed any wind assistance. There could be quite a few more long balls tonight.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Schierholtz RF, Castillo C, Valbuena 3B, Barney 2B, Jackson P
Padres lineup:
Cabrera SS, Denorfia CF, Headley 3B, Quentin LF, Alonso 1B, Kotsay RF, Gyorko 2B, Hundley C, Volquez P
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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Edwin Jackson last faced the Padres just a bit more than a year ago, April 26, 2012 in San Diego. Oddly enough, his pitching opponent that day was the same man who's going for the Padres tonight -- Edinson Volquez. Jackson threw well, but Volquez threw better. Current Padres are hitting .282 against Jackson (22-for-78). Two of them have hit home runs: Carlos Quentin and Will Venable. That sounds about right. The Cubs will have to score some runs to win this one.
The Cubs, meanwhile, did not face Edinson Volquez last year; he made two starts against the Cubs in 2011, but most of those guys aren't on the Cubs any more. Current Cubs are hitting a small-sample-size 11-for-45 (.244) against Volquez, but Volquez is off to a horrific start this year, with a 6.39 ERA and 1.737 WHIP; he's also leading the major leagues in wild pitches with five. Maybe this year's Cubs can take advantage.
Today's game is on WCIU. WCIU games can also be seen outside Chicago on the following digital channels or subchannels: Springfield/Decatur/Champaign WCIX 49.2, Peoria WAOE 59.1, Des Moines WHO 13.2, Quad Cities (Davenport/Moline) WQAD 8.2 or 8.3, Ft. Wayne WANE 15.2 and South Bend WMYS, 69
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Padres site Gaslamp Ball. Be careful over there.
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.