Cubs vs. Brewers Preview, Sunday 6/1, 1:10 CT

The Cubs have certainly not been road warriors recently. Since August 1, 2013 they are 19-37 on the road (10-20 of that, this year). They have not won a road series since September 9-10-11, 2013, when they took two of three from the Reds at Cincinnati.

Three times this year -- at St. Louis (twice) and at San Francisco -- the Cubs have split the first two games of a road series, only to fail to win the third game.

That's where the Cubs sit right now, having split the first two games of this set. A win would give them a 5-5 road trip. The last time the Cubs had a .500 road trip was August 6-11, 2013, when they split six games at Philadelphia and St. Louis. The last time the Cubs did 5-5 or better on a 10-game trip was July 19-28, 2013, when they went 6-4 on a trip to Colorado, Arizona and San Francisco. (That included a three-game sweep of the Giants.)

So it's time, wouldn't you say?

Cubs lineup:

Bonifacio CF, Lake LF, Rizzo 1B, Castro SS, Schierholtz RF, Castillo C, Olt 3B, Barney 2B, Samardzija P

Brewers lineup:

Segura SS, Braun RF, Lucroy C, Gomez CF, Davis LF, Gennett 2B, Reynolds 3B, Overbay 1B, Lohse P

Today's Starting Pitchers

Jeff Samardzija Cubs vs. Kyle Lohse Brewers vs. Mil -- vs. Cubs

This is the third day in a row we'll have a rematch of a previous pitching matchup from this year. The first two were Miller Park rematches; today's happened in Wrigley Field May 16, when Lohse and the Brewers defeated the Cubs 4-3. It was Shark's shortest start of the year as he threw just five innings; Lohse gave the Cubs three runs in seven innings. Since then both pitchers have had one really good start and one "meh" one; Shark's ERA is slightly ahead of Johnny Cueto for the major-league lead (1.680 to 1.681).

After two blowouts in this series, one for each team, I'd expect a low-scoring, close game this afternoon.

Today's game is on WGN.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. The usual caution is advised.

For 2014, we are going to have the same game-thread routine as 2013. Here's how it works.

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.