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A final word on yesterday's bad ball-and-strike calls: First, though we never hear of umpire accountability, I hope Joe Maddon filed a report with the commissioner's office. You know there will be one filed on him, since he was tossed. I trust someone will review Sam Holbrook's calls and, at least privately, might ask him to do better.
In the meantime, we won't have to deal with Holbrook calling balls and strikes today. That, at least, will be an improvement.
One further note: though the Padres haven't been all that much better than the Cubs since 2010, the Cubs are 15-20 against them since that year. Time to start making improvements on that.
Here is your once-a-series reminder about SB Nation's partner daily fantasy game, FanDuel. If you want to participate, here's the link.
Here are today's particulars.
Cubs lineup:
Fowler CF, Soler RF, Rizzo 1B, Bryant 3B, Coghlan LF, Castro SS, Montero C, Hendricks P, Herrera 2B
Padres lineup:
Myers CF, Alonso 1B, Kemp RF, Upton LF, Middlebrooks 3B, Gyorko 2B, Amarista SS, Nieves C, Ross P
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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Kyle Hendricks didn't have a terrible start in his first 2015 outing, though the results say he did. If you recall, he deflected a likely sure inning-ending double-play ball and instead wound up giving up runs in that inning. He's faced the Padres only once in his career, July 22, 2014 at Wrigley Field, and a lot of those guys aren't even on the Padres anymore. Heck, one of them is a Cub -- Chris Denorfia.
So this is a key start for Hendricks to come off an outing that surely didn't go the way he wanted and show he can be the starter he was a year ago.
Tyson Ross faced the Cubs once last year, July 24 at Wrigley Field, and gave up one run in six innings while striking out 11. Again, many of those Cubs aren't on the team anymore. Ross has done all right in his first two 2015 starts, though he's issued a lot of walks (seven in 12 innings). Perhaps the Cubs can wear him down by being patient.
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 Padres site Gaslamp Ball. The usual caution is advised.
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.