Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Friday 4/23, 1:20 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Friday notes:

• J-HEY! Jason Heyward’s walkoff single was his fourth walkoff hit as a Cub. The last one was an 11th-inning home run against the Marlins May 8, 2019.
• IT’S ALL IN THE DIFFERENTIAL: The Cubs have won four of their last five. At the time that stretch began, the Cubs were 5-8 with a run differential of -23. They’ve improved that by +15 over the five-game stretch and are now at -8.
• WHAT A RELIEF: Cubs relievers have struck out 97 in 76 innings this season, a rate of 11.5 per nine innings.
• CLOSING TIME: Craig Kimbrel’s great start to 2021 has wiped out his entire negative bWAR accumulated for the Cubs in 2019-20. He had -0.8 bWAR combined those two years, now as a Cub he’s at +0.1, and hopefully going up. His Cubs ERA has also dropped from 6.00 entering 2021 to 4.80, in just eight 2021 appearances.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Brewers lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Brett Anderson, LHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Kyle Hendricks made a start last Sunday. We’re just gonna forget that ever happened, mmm-kay?

Instead, let’s talk about the six shutout innings he threw against the Brewers April 7 at Wrigley Field.

I’ll take another one of those, please.

The Cubs hit Brett Anderson pretty hard April 5 at Wrigley Field, four runs in five innings, including three home runs (Willson Contreras, Javier Baez, David Bote).

As is the case for Hendricks above, I’ll take another one just like that one. It won’t be easy, Anderson has made two starts since then and thrown quite well — one earned run in 12 innings.

But the Cubs have done quite well against lefthanders this season. Keep up the good work.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. The game will also be 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.