Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Friday 4/8, 1:20 CT

Once again, you will need this today:

Friday notes...

• NICOMG:

• IT DOES GET EASIER: After this homestand, 10 of the Cubs’ following 13 games are against the Pirates and Rockies. (The other three are against the contending Tampa Bay Rays.)
• OPENING DAY FACTS: After Thursday’s win, the Cubs have an 80-65-2 all-time Opening Day record. They are 49-40 when opening the season on the road and 31-25-2 when opening at home (includes the 2000 opener in Japan). And, after Thursday’s win, the Cubs are 24-24-1 in season openers played at Wrigley Field.
• OF HISTORICAL NOTE: The first designated hitter in Wrigley Field history with fans in attendance was Rafael Ortega, who walked. (The first Wrigley DH, with no fans in attendance, was Ryan Braun on July 24, 2020.)
• BREWERS NOTE:

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Brewers lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Brandon Woodruff, RHP

Justin Steele has a chance to become the first regular rotation starter developed in the Cubs system since Jeff Samardzija.

I think he’s got a good chance to do that. He showed flashes of brilliance last summer after he got that regular rotation spot. He made nine starts from August 10 through season’s end. Though his overall ERA in that span was 4.95, at least three of the starts were excellent.

In two starts vs. the Brewers last year, he allowed five runs in nine innings, with five walks and five strikeouts, and four home runs allowed. That obviously isn’t good. We’ll hope for better things in 2022.

Like his teammate Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff dominated the Cubs last year: 0.64 ERA and 0.750 WHIP in five starts covering 28 innings. He faced 106 Cubs hitters and struck out 33 of them.

Don’t know what else to say except I’m hoping that this year’s Cubs do better, and that he’s not quite as good as he was in 2021.

Statcast

Statcast

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

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 2022 Game Thread procedure will be like last years, 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.