Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Sunday 4/8, 1:10 CT

Notes for this afternoon’s game:

• The Cubs bullpen has thrown 35⅓ innings in the first eight games to begin the season, posting a major league-best 1.02 ERA (4 ER/35.1 IP), the lowest mark of any big league bullpen (the Mets are next closest with a 1.32 ERA). The bullpen opened this year with a 15⅔-scoreless innings streak through the 16th inning of March 30’s contest. That is the longest scoreless innings streak by the Cubs bullpen to begin a season since 1990, when the pen began the year with 20 scoreless innings.
• Today’s game ends a two-week sojourn in which the Cubs have traveled over 3,600 miles. It began with a 1,975-mile flight from Phoenix to Fort Myers for the two exhibition games vs. the Red Sox. Following a bus ride to Miami for that series, the team flew 1,125 miles to Cincinnati, played one game, got rained out of the other, then flew 250 miles to Chicago for Wednesday’s off day, then a 92-mile bus ride to Milwaukee for this weekend. Despite all that, per baseballsavant.com the Cubs will travel the fifth-fewest miles of any MLB team in 2018. The Reds have the fewest miles to travel (20,738) while the Mariners have the longest way to go (40,783).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Brewers lineup:

Jose Quintana, LHP vs. Chase Anderson, RHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

You will, no doubt, remember Jose Quintana’s magnificent three-hit shutout thrown against the Brewers last September 24, one of the best Cubs starts in recent years.

His first start this year, last Sunday against the Marlins, was... not so good. He managed to get through six innings, but walked four and allowed six runs.

Current Brewers are hitting .224 (30-for-134) against Quintana with no home runs and 29 strikeouts. Hopefully Q continues the dominance he showed last fall.

One last note: Q is 10 strikeouts away from 1,000 for his career.

Chase Anderson had a very good year in 2017, but overall his numbers against the Cubs last year weren’t so good: 4.87 ERA, 1.377 WHIP in four starts covering 20⅓ innings, with four home runs allowed. Overall in 100 at-bats against him, Cubs hitters have seven home runs, including three by Kris Bryant, who is the Cubs’ hottest hitter right now. Hint, hint, KB.

Today’s game is on WGN.

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.