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The Cubs' longest winning streak of 2014 was five games; that happened in June. Twice after that, they won four straight.
Now, just seven games into the 2015 season, they have a chance for a four-game winning streak. Piling up lots of wins early = always a good thing. The Cubs haven't had a four-game winning streak in April since 2010, and, if you are looking forward, haven't won more than four straight games in April since 2008, when they had both a five-game and a six-game winning streak before the calendar turned to May.
This game, and series, is very winnable. Here's hoping the Cubs start running off lots and lots of consecutive wins.
Here are today's particulars.
Cubs lineup:
Fowler CF, Rizzo 1B, Soler RF, Coghlan LF, Castro SS, Montero C, Alcantara 2B, Arrieta P, Herrera 3B
Here is the Cubs' cool lineup tweet:
.@JArrieta34’s two home starts vs. #Reds last season: 16 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 22 Ks. http://t.co/8BdbWLOYXq #LetsGo pic.twitter.com/oGpIM1wxnk
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 14, 2015
Regarding the different TV channels the Cubs are on, this might be a useful Twitter account to follow. (No, it's not me and I have no idea who's behind it, but it does seem as if it will have useful info every day.)
Mike Olt and Tommy La Stella apparently are still not 100 percent; Chris Coghlan was working out at third base again:
Coghlan Time https://t.co/3wYG3QxXBB
— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) April 14, 2015
Reds lineup:
Hamilton CF, Votto 1B, Frazier 3B, Phillips 2B, Bruce RF, Byrd LF, Pena C, Cozart SS, DeSclafani P
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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So Jake Arrieta had a really good first start of 2015, throwing seven shutout innings at the Cardinals. And the last time he faced the Reds -- September 16, 2014 at Wrigley Field -- he threw a one-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts.
I'm thinking tonight could be really, really good for Jake and the Cubs.
Anthony DeSclafani came to the Reds in the Mat Latos trade last offseason. He has made one decent start this year (six innings, two earned runs allowed against the Pirates). He made one start against the Cubs last year while with the Marlins -- June 17, 2014 at Miami. That's more or less irrelevant, because most of the players who started that game for the Cubs aren't on the team anymore. So what will we see? Who knows?
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. Be careful over there, though.
Once again for 2015, we are going to have the same game-thread routine as the last couple of years. 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 most 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.