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You don't need me to tell you how cold and rainy it's been so far this spring in Chicago. Instead, let the National Weather Service tell you:
THE AVERAGE HIGH TEMPERATURE WAS 56.3 DEGREES WHICH IS 2.7 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. THE AVERAGE LOW TEMPERATURE WAS 37.5 DEGREES WHICH IS 1.3 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH WAS 46.9 DEGREES WHICH IS 2.O DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. 8.68 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION WAS RECORDED WHICH IS 5.30 INCHES ABOVE NORMAL. O.1 INCH OF SNOW WAS RECORDED WHICH IS 1.1 INCHES BELOW NORMAL. THE 8.68 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION ESTABLISHED A NEW RECORD RAINFALL AMOUNT FOR THE MONTH IN CHICAGO. A RECORD DAILY RAINFALL AMOUNT OF 2.01 INCHES WAS SET ON APRIL 17TH AND THE 3.54 INCHES OF RAIN ON APRIL 18TH WAS THE SECOND RAINIEST APRIL DAY ON RECORD IN CHICAGO.
The Cubs were rained out on April 17, and played on April 18 despite that rain. After a couple of teaser days, summerlike with temperatures in the 80s, we are back to April's cold and wet for today:
Showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 5O. Northeast wind 1O to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 7O%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Despite the fact that the Reds will return to Chicago in June and also July, it looks like they're going to try to get this one in. The good news is that the weather forecast improves over the next several days. If you can take the cold weather, today is the first of four exclusive Topps card giveaways featuring unique designs made by the card company, to the first 10,000 fans.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Schierholtz RF, Castillo C, Valbuena 3B, Barney 2B, Villanueva P
Reds lineup:
Choo CF, Cozart SS, Votto 1B, Frazier 3B, Bruce RF, Paul LF, Mesoraco C, Izturis 2B, Leake P
Haven't found any news regarding why Brandon Phillips isn't in the lineup for the Reds today.
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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Carlos Villanueva pitched into the ninth inning against the Reds April 23 in Cincinnati and would have gotten the win if not for... well, you know. (Bad relief work by Carlos Marmol, in case you've forgotten.) The Cubs won the game in the 10th. Villanueva has been excellent all year. Here's hoping this is a new normal and he doesn't come back to Earth. Not yet, anyway.
Mike Leake threw seven solid innings against the Cubs April 22 in Cincinnati; he wasn't involved in the decision in that game, which went 13 innings. He gave up a leadoff home run to David DeJesus that night; in his only start since then he went just three innings against the Nationals.
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 Reds site Red Reporter. 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.