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Chicago Cubs vs. Philadelphia Phillies Preview, Sunday 9/13, 12:35 CT

The Cubs go for the series win Sunday afternoon.

By Al Yellon
Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Amazing Kyle Schwarber number:

Here's the MORE MORE:

With 21 games remaining on the schedule, Schwarber has a shot at 20 homers. 16 HR in 52 games is a pace for 50 in a full season. Obviously, that's hard to sustain, but still...

Here are today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Fowler CF, Schwarber LF, Coghlan RF, Rizzo 1B, Bryant 3B, Montero C, Castro 2B, Haren P, Russell SS

Phillies lineup:

Hernandez 2B, Galvis SS, Herrera CF, Altherr LF, Howard 1B, Rupp C, Bogusevic RF, Asche 3B, Harang P

Today's Starting Pitchers
Dan Haren

Dan Haren

Cubs

 vs. Aaron Harang

Aaron Harang

Phillies

vs. Phi

 --

vs. Cubs

With the switch of Dan Haren to today from Saturday night, you get to read this pitcher preview again!

Dan Haren, who spent much of this year with the Marlins and thus faced N.L. East teams frequently, has made three starts against the Phillies already this year. One of those starts was good. The other two, you really don't want to look. Overall in 18 innings vs. the Phillies this year he has a 4.50 ERA and four home runs allowed: two each to Ryan Howard and Freddy Galvis.

Maybe he should just pretend he's facing the Cardinals again.

Aaron Harang. Man, have the Cubs seen a lot of this guy -- 28 career starts against the Cubs. 179⅔ innings, second-most against any team. 4.31 career ERA vs. mostly bad Cubs teams, and now the Cubs are good and Harang is worse. At 37 and a free agent after this season, he's probably just about at the end of the line, and it's been worse recently -- a 7.08 ERA in eight starts since the All-Star break, with a 1.922 WHIP and nine home runs allowed in 42⅔ innings in those starts.

Really, the Cubs ought to be able to hit him early and often. Current Cubs are hitting .333 (33-for-99) against Harang with five home runs, three of them by David Ross.

Fun fact: Haren and Harang have both played for eight teams. Even though they have two teams in common (Athletics and Dodgers), they've never been teammates even though they have combined to wear 14 different uniforms.

Today's game is on WGN. For coverage info in other Midwest markets click here (link opens .pdf).

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 Phillies site The Good Phight. If you do go there to interact with Phillies fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2015 Game Thread procedure has changed a bit. Here's how it will work going forward.

You'll find the game preview posted separately on the front page, two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream™ containing the preview will also post on the front page. The First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads will be published in that stream, as well as the recap. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post, and at the time I write the recap I will rename the stream "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread, all the overflow threads and recap 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 the game's StoryStream™ as noted above.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at one hour, two hours and 2:45 after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

In This Stream

Cubs vs. Phillies Sunday Game Threads

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