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In August 2010, the Cubs came into Nationals Park and swept the Nats; those were Mike Quade's first three games as Cubs manager, beginning the dead-cat bounce that resulted in Quade being retained to manage the team in 2011.
Since then, the Cubs are 1-8 in Washington -- the only win is this wacky game where the Cubs overcame an 8-0 deficit to win 10-9 -- and since the beginning of 2011, the Cubs are 4-11 overall against the Nationals.
This does not bode well for this afternoon's contest. Nevertheless, they will play it anyway, because the schedule calls for the two teams to play and the Cubs likely don't want to forfeit.
And there's a pretty good chance of rain in the Washington area this afternoon.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Schierholtz RF, Valbuena 3B, Castillo C, Barney 2B, Jackson P
Nationals lineup:
Span CF, Bernadina RF, Zimmerman 3B, LaRoche 1B, Desmond SS, Espinosa 2B, Moore LF, Ramos C, Strasburg P
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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Edwin Jackson, who has been pretty bad so far this season, gets to face his old team for the first time. Of course, he can say that about almost one-third of the teams in the major leagues. The last time he faced the Nats was June 24, 2011, when he was a member of the White Sox. Jackson threw seven shutout innings that night. It would be nice to see a repeat of that.
The Cubs have faced Stephen Strasburg just once -- Opening Day 2012 at Wrigley Field, where he threw seven innings and allowed five hits and one run. Four of the starting position players that day aren't with the team any more. Strasburg is off to a good, though not dominating, start this year and the Nats have won just two of his seven outings. So maybe we're not totally doomed.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Nationals site Federal Baseball.
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.