Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Saturday 4/28, 1:20 CT

A few fun facts before this afternoon’s game:

• The Cubs are third in the National League with 125 runs, four fewer than the Pirates, who have played two more games. The Cubs’ runs per game average of 5.43 is second to the Braves, 5.48.
• Despite some early pitching woes, the Cubs have allowed 95 runs, tied for third-fewest in the N.L. with the Phillies. Because the Cubs have played the fewest games in the league (23), the runs per game average (4.13) ranks eighth.
• The Cubs’ .340 OBP leads the National League. Their .424 SLG ranks second to the Braves, as does the team OPS of .764.
• The Cubs are lapping the field in HBP, with 22. The Mets are second with 15.
• The Cubs are 5-1 vs. the Brewers, 8-9 vs. all other teams. Meanwhile, the Brewers are 1-5 vs. the Cubs and 15-6 vs. all other teams. Go figure.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Brewers lineup:

Jose Quintana, LHP vs. Junior Guerra, RHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

Like Yu Darvish in Friday’s game, Jose Quintana’s best outing of 2018 prior to this start was his outing against the Brewers, April 8 at Miller Park, when he threw six outstanding shutout innings. In fact, in five career starts vs. Milwaukee, Q has a 0.75 ERA and 0.750 WHIP — just three total runs in 36 innings, with 36 strikeouts. Current Brewers are hitting .210 (33-for-157) against him, but most of the hits are from Lorenzo Cain (19-for-66, .288). So besides Cain, current Brewers are hitting just .154 (14-for-91) against Q. Stop Cain and the Cubs should do just fine today.

Junior Guerra has had a very odd career. He washed out of the Braves and Mets systems after just a couple of years. The White Sox signed him out of the Mexican League, but gave up on him at age 30 and just three appearances in 2015. He had a really good year for the Brewers in 2016 (3.8 bWAR), but was awful in 2017, with negative bWAR. This year in three starts so far he has an 0.56 ERA and 1.000 WHIP. Current Cubs are a small sample size 7-for-48 (.146) against him, though with 10 walks and a home run (Kyle Schwarber).

In short, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Today’s game is on ABC7 Chicago. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Chicago and Milwaukee 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.