Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Monday 7/3, 1:10 CT

The Cubs are playing at a stadium with a roof the next four days — so no matter what it’s doing outside in Milwaukee, no rain delays!

Monday notes...

• THE TRIP UP I-94: Today’s game will begin the Cubs’ 14th four-game series at Milwaukee against the Brewers. They are 33-19 in games of the previous 13 series, including sweeps in 2003, 2008 and 2015. They never have been swept and went 1-3 only three times, in 1998, in 2013 and in 2019, the last such series. In games of shorter series in Milwaukee against the Brewers, the Cubs are just 66-89. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE BELLINGER FILES: Cody Bellinger went 1-for-4 Sunday with a sacrifice fly. That extended his hitting streak to eight games, matching a season high. In those eight games he is batting .414/.419/.483 (12-for-29) with four runs scored and only three strikeouts.
• KEEP AN EYE ON: Hayden Wesneski, last four relief appearances: 10 innings, eight hits, two walks (1.000 WHIP), two runs allowed (1.80 ERA), nine strikeouts. He has lowered his season ERA from 5.33 to 4.75 in this span.
• THE WALK WATCH: The Cubs have 298 walks this season, fourth-most in MLB. The three teams with more (Dodgers, Padres, Reds) have all played at least one more game than the Cubs. The Cubs also have at least one walk in their last 58 games since April 28. The last time the Cubs had a longer such streak was a 106-game run from July 22, 2019-September 8, 2020.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

The Brewers lineup was not available at posting time. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Brewers lineup.

Drew Smyly, LHP vs. Julio Teheran, RHP

Drew Smyly was having a nice little season and then... well, he hasn’t been very good over his last few starts, and his last one, June 28 vs. the Phillies at Wrigley Field, was downright awful.

He has not faced the Brewers this year. Last year he faced them twice and threw nine shutout innings, allowing five hits and two walks, with five strikeouts. I’ll take one of those, please.

Julio Teheran was once a pretty good prospect (Top 50 from 2010-13), then a decent enough starter for the Braves for several seasons.

In 2020 and 2021 he was pretty bad and was out of MLB for a full year, pitching in the Mexican League last year.

The Brewers signed him and he’s been ... pretty good again. His first six starts were really good, though his last one, June 28 vs. the Mets, wasn’t (seven runs in 5⅔ innings).

He hasn’t faced the Cubs since 2019, so that’s largely irrelevant. The only current Cub who has more than one hit against him is, oddly, Tucker Barnhart (4-for-11, .364, three doubles).

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here. 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 2023 Game Thread procedure will be like last year’s, 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.