Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Wednesday 4/14, 12:40 CT

Wednesday afternoon game notes...

• WILLSON! Willson Contreras’ homer last evening was his second career game‐winning homer in the eighth inning or later. His first also came against the Brewers, a walk‐off solo homer in the 15th inning of a 2‐1 victory at Wrigley Field, May 11, 2019.
• STRETCHING HIM OUT: Craig Kimbrel is the first Cub with multiple saves of more than one inning in a five‐game span since Carlos Marmol in 2010 (July 3 and July 6). (H/T: Ed Hartig)
• MORE KIMBREL: In his last 13 outings dating to September 3, 2020, Kimbrel has thrown 13⅓ shutout innings, allowing three hits while walking one and striking out 23, good for an average of 15.53 strikeouts per nine innings and a 0.300 WHIP. He’s held opponents to an .071 average (3‐for‐42) and a .164 OPS.
• J-HEY IN THE FIELD: Jason Heyward has a 141‐game errorless streak in right field dating to May 8, 2019, his second‐longest errorless streak in right (his career high is 164 games in 2014‐15).

Here are today’s particulars.

This is very odd. We’re less than two hours to game time and neither team has released a lineup yet. Will send them from the BCB Twitter account when they’re available.

Jake Arrieta, RHP vs. Corbin Burnes, RHP

MLB Photos via Getty Images

MLB Photos via Getty Images

Oddity: Of the 11 Cubs games so far this year, five have been at night. But both of Jake Arrieta’s starts have been in day games.

Over the course of his career, Jake has been slightly better in day games than night games:

Day: 102 games (100 starts), 3.58 ERA, 1.183 WHIP
Night: 161 games (157 starts), 3.85 ERA, 1.246 WHIP

This despite the fact that both his no-hitters were in night games.

Don’t know if this has any meaning for today, but thought it was interesting.

Arrieta last faced the Brewers May 25, 2019 as a member of the Phillies: eight innings, two runs. I’d take another one of those this afternoon.

Corbin Burnes has been really good in two starts so far this year: 12⅓ innings, two hits, one run, no walks, 20 strikeouts.

Last year he threw twice against the Cubs for a total of seven innings, allowing four hits, six walks and three runs, with 11 strikeouts.

Current Cubs are a small sample size 9-for-44 (.205) against Burnes, but with three home runs (Javier Baez, Jason Heyward, Joc Pederson).

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Brewers market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. If you do go there to interact with Brewers 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 2021 Game Thread procedure will be a bit different than previous years. It will be similar to what we’ve used for Spring Training.

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, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.