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Since 2005, the Cubs have won just two series in San Diego. One was in 2008 -- that might have been expected in that division title season The other was in 2010, which helped knock the Padres out of the postseason that year. That one felt good, incidentally. REAL good.
Overall from 2006 through yesterday, the Cubs are 9-18 in Petco Park. Nevertheless, they have a chance to win yet another road series with a win this afternoon. The Cubs are 10-8 on the road since the All-Star break, and, since they won Saturday night wearing the road grays, I hope they're going to wear them again Sunday afternoon.
Cubs lineup:
Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Schierholtz RF, Bogusevic LF, Lake CF, Murphy 3B, Castillo C, Barney 2B, Rusin P
Brian Bogusevic hitting cleanup. That's a new one. For this team, anyway; Bogusevic did hit fourth (as a starter) eight times for the Astros, including once against the Cubs at Wrigley, June 30, 2012.
Padres lineup:
Denorfia RF, Venable CF, Gyorko 2B, Headley 3B, Guzman 1B, Forsythe LF, Cedeno SS, Rivera C, Cashner P
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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Chris Rusin has been a pleasant surprise this season, throwing mostly consistent baseball in his seven starts and putting himself in the mix for the 2014 rotation. He has never faced the Padres nor anyone on their roster. Throwing in what is still a pitchers' park (despite them bringing the fences in) could be the portent of a good day for Rusin.
Andrew Cashner has had a decent, though not great, year in the first season he's spent non-injured in the major leagues. He doesn't really show signs of being a No. 1 starter; the Padres would probably be better served trading Huston Street and making Cashner their closer. That's just my own view, of course. Cashner got hit pretty hard by the Cubs May 1 at Wrigley Field; I'd like to see a repeat of that today.
Today's game is on WGN.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Padres site Gaslamp Ball.
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.