Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Thursday 8/13, 6:15 CT

If the Cubs win tonight, they will match the best 16-game start in franchise history. Currently 12-3, they trail only the 1907 Cubs, who went 13-2 before losing their 16th game.

More Thursday notes:

• STREAKING: The Cubs are the only MLB team to have not lost consecutive games so far thie year.
• MORE STREAKING: The Cubs have won their last six straight home games.
• OPENERS: The Cubs have played six series so far this year and won the first game of all of them
• THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Anthony Rizzo has reached base safely in his last 25 games at Wrigley Field dating to August 7, 2019 and is hitting .390 (30-for-77) with a 1.170 OPS at Wrigley Field during this stretch.
• BETTER BULLPENNING: Cubs relievers have posted a 3.18 ERA (eight earned runs in 22⅔ innings) with a .198 opponent batting average (16-for-81) and a .586 opponent OPS in the team’s last seven games since August 2.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Brewers lineup:

Yu Darvish, RHP vs. Brett Anderson, LHP

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Yu Darvish had a rough outing in his first start of the year July 25 against the Brewers, allowing three runs in four innings.

His other two starts, though, have been brilliant: 13 total innings, one run allowed, 0.692 WHIP, two walks and 11 strikeouts. That’s more like the Darvish we saw the second half of 2019. During that second half he faced the Brewers twice and allowed them eight hits and one walk in 10 innings, with 15 strikeouts. Current Brewers are hitting .205 (21-for-102) against Darvish with two home runs, both by Christian Yelich, who got into a Twitter tiff last fall with Darvish over what Yelich felt were allegations by Darvish of sign-stealing.

Yelich’s tweet, which said “Be better than this. Nobody needs help facing you,” has now been deleted. Hope Yu strikes him out every time.

Brett Anderson made six mostly bad starts for the Cubs in 2017, after which he hit the then-disabled list and was eventually released. He landed in Toronto, then Oakland, and had a good year for the Athletics in 2019. That included six strong innings against the Cubs last August 6 at Wrigley Field.

Anderson has made two starts for the Brewers this year and has not pitched beyond the fourth inning in either of them. Overall he’s allowed nine hits and two walks in 6⅔ innings. The Cubs are 4-0 against LH starters so far this season and I don’t see any reason that should change after tonight.

Today’s game is on Fox-TV (full national broadcast, no blackouts). Fox announcers: Joe Buck and John Smoltz.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

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The 2020 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/Date) 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.