Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves preview, Friday 4/13, 1:20 CT

As noted in the series preview, the weather this weekend is going to be horrific. Today, with temperatures in the mid to upper 40s and a chance of rain late afternoon, is the best forecast of the three days. Saturday looks like a washout; the Cubs might be well-advised to simply call Saturday’s game late Friday, play Sunday and figure out later when they can make up a postponement.

The Cubs and Braves have a common off day Monday, May 14 when they could play a makeup game. Oddly, that comes right before the teams play a three-game series in Atlanta.

While it’s not normally summerlike in Chicago in April, neither is it usually this cold and wet. The first 10 days of this month ranked as tied for second-coldest all-time for April in Chicago.

It will warm up. Eventually. We hope.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Braves lineup:

Yu Darvish, RHP vs. Anibal Sanchez, RHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Yu Darvish has had one rough start and one good one as a Cub, and now he makes his Wrigley Field debut in a Cubs uniform (this 2016 game is his only previous Wrigley appearance).

Darvish has never faced the Braves, and current members of the Atlanta roster are a very small sample size 1-for-19 with 11 strikeouts against him. Don’t get too encouraged by that, almost all those players are Braves reserves.

I still think Darvish is primed for a big year. Having a good game in his first Wrigley start will, if nothing else, get Cubs fans on his side.

It took a long time until anyone signed Anibal Sanchez as a free agent this past offseason. He signed with the Twins. 19 days after they signed him, they released him. He never appeared in a spring game with Minnesota, and threw only twice in spring games for the Braves after they signed him March 16.

He has made one relief appearance and one start for Atlanta this year, throwing eight innings and allowing eight hits and five walks, with eight strikeouts. Pretty small sample to make any judgments.

The last time he faced the Cubs was in 2015, when he threw two games against them for the Tigers. Current Cubs are hitting .232 (13-for-56) against him with no home runs.

Today’s game is on NBC Sports Chicago. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Chicago and Atlanta markets).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

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The 2018 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used during 2017. Here's how it works.

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.