Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves preview, Monday 4/1, 6:10 CT

Honestly, I don’t have anything more to say about this game, not after a completely exhausting weekend for the Cubs in Texas. Basically, they scored enough runs — 28 — to sweep the series. But the pitching staff has been, uh, not very good. That’s going to have to change. Good offensive showing, though. Let’s hope they keep that up.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Braves lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Sean Newcomb, LHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Hendricks, who many think should rank as Opening Day starter for the Cubs, instead throws the fourth game of the season.

Really, it doesn’t matter, as long as the pitchers do the job.

Kyle has not faced the Braves since August 31, 2017, so they looked a lot different then than now. As such, he’s never pitched in SunTrust Park and in fact, has only one career start in Atlanta (July 17, 2015). The only Braves hitter who’s seen him more than a handful of times is Nick Markakis (5-for-11).

Sean Newcomb has made three career starts against the Cubs and they’ve hit him pretty well in all three, although to be fair, one of those starts was that ridiculously cold and wet day last April 14 at Wrigley Field.

Newcomb had a good year in 2018, his first full big-league season, producing a 3.90 ERA, 1.329 WHIP and 1.7 bWAR. The Braves are looking for bigger things from him in 2019.

Albert Almora Jr., Javier Baez and Willson Contreras have all homered off Newcomb.

Today’s game is on NBC Sports Chicago Plus. It’s also on ESPN (outside the Atlanta market, should be available in the Cubs market territory).

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 Braves site Talking Chop. If you do go there to interact with Braves 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 2019 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used in previous years. 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.