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This portion of the second game preview is being written before the first game begins, so I don't know what's happened there. Maybe the Cubs won in a blowout! Or, maybe they got shut out again. Perhaps Anthony Rizzo came out of his slump with a huge game. Maybe Junior Lake stole a bunch of bases and picked up where he left off in Arizona.
Or not. If I have time between games, I'll write up a quick recap here, added after these short paragraphs. Otherwise, this is all I got, for now.
All right, it's just after game 1 and here's the word that describes the Cubs' defeat: dreadful. The weather was dreadful. The pace of the game was dreadful. The Cubs' offense, except for the fifth inning where they scored all five of their runs, was dreadful. James Russell was dreadful. All we can hope for is less dreadful in Game 2. I'll have more on both games tomorrow morning. In the meantime, here are the particulars for tonight's game, except for lineups, which were not available at posting time. Check the the BCB Twitter feed for the lineups.
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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Jake Arrieta has never faced the Brewers; the only member of their team he's ever faced is Yuniesky Betancourt (0-for-2, but then a lot of pitchers have made Yuni go 0-for-2). Arrieta has considerable talent that he's never quite been able to harness. He was the Orioles' Opening Day starter in 2012; they sure thought he was going to be a big-time guy, and the Cubs now have that same hope. He's 27, so it needs to happen soon.
Tyler Thornburg has never faced the Cubs nor anyone on the current roster. He'll be making his first 2013 start after six relief appearances, three of which went four or more innings (hint to Dale Sveum, this is how you use a "long reliever"). Whenever I hear his name, I keep thinking of this 1980s era TV series.
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 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 (except for this second game of the split DH, one hour).
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.