The Cubs head home to Wrigley Field for Social Media Night, which figures to be a Twitter-heavy affair (#CubsSocial is where the theoretical action will occur – but you may also want to follow Bleacher Nation on Twitter). It’s Phillies/Cubs, and I’ll be there in the RF bleachers for the game, and next door at the Captain Morgan Club before the game. If you’re around, stop by and say hello (I’ll have my old standby blue BN shirt on, together with garrish yellow and blue kicks, and plain Cubs hat).
As for the game, the Cubs catch a break in not facing Vance Worley, who’s out with a tender elbow. Kyle Kendrick takes his place, and the Cubs counter with Matt Garza. Tomorrow’s matchup is Chris Volstad versus Roy Halladay, so, like, let’s just hope the Cubs win tonight, eh?
Game Info
Philadelphia Phillies (18-19) at Chicago Cubs (15-21), 7:05pm CT on CSN.
Game Thread and Series Preview
The Game Thread lives here. You should participate in the madness. And, of course, for those who aren’t into message board-style game threads, please feel free to use the comments on this post for your in-game commentary/outbursts.
The Series Preview for this series lives here.
Starting Pitchers
Kyle Kendrick (0-3, 7.32 ERA, 2.034 WHIP)
versus
Matt Garza (2-1, 2.56 ERA, 0.983 WHIP)
Philadelphia Phillies Lineup
(Just a guess, since, once again, the Phillies are slow on announcing the lineup. I’ll try to update when the lineup is released, but feel free to drop it in the comments.)
1. Jimmy Rollins, SS
2. Juan Pierre, LF
3. Shane Victorino, CF
4. Hunter Pence, RF
5. Placido Polanco, 3B
6. Carlos Ruiz, C
7. John Mayberry, 1B
8. Freddy Galvis, 2B
9. Kyle Kendrick, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup
1. David DeJesus, RF
2. Tony Campana, CF
3. Starlin Castro, SS
4. Bryan LaHair, 1B
5. Alfonso Soriano, LF
6. Ian Stewart, 3B
7. Geovany Soto,C
8. Darwin Barney, 2B
9. Matt Garza, P
Ian Stewart has hit well in last three!
Can anyone attend the Captain Morgan event as long as you have a ticket to the game ?
I think you have to have a “Cubs Social” ticket.
lets break cycle and not be kendricks first win of the year and go kick their ***!
Have a good feeling about this game. This year’s Phillies are definetly are shell of their former selves, which is great for all the other teams. Let’s start this series right!
Cubs own Halliday.
Let me in, Coach!
Quiet you! Bench players dont speak unless spoken to!
My name is Christy. I am using my parents computer to inform any cub friends at this sports site that my Dad, Ty has passed away. Mom said that since his illness he spent time reading about his beloved Cubs. Thank you.
Sorry to hear that Christy. My condolences.
I’m so very sorry to hear about this, Christy. Ty was a regular here, and his comments were always positive and friendly, but burned with Cubs blue. His reports from early Spring Training were great, too. He will be missed. My condolences to your family and all of Ty’s friends.
My condolences to you, his family, and friends. I enjoyed reading Ty’s comments and sharing thoughts about the Cubs. Very sorry to hear about your loss.
Wow, many of us don’t know eachother but it truly feels like we lost a friend with Ty. I always read his comments, they always caught my attention.
My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family Christy. May your father rest in peace.
Let’s hope the cubs win today for Ty’s sake.
Christy, my deepest condolences to you and your family. Like many others at this site, I always enjoyed reading your fathers comments. He will be missed.
My deepest condolences go out to you and your family Christy. My prayers will be with you. His comments were always appreciated. He will definately be missed around here.
Christy – We’re all so sad to hear this news. We loved hearing from Ty, and our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
Although I don’t really remember Ty, since I am still relatively new here, it saddens me to lose one of our own. My condolences and prayers to you and your family.
My sincere condolences: I liked Ty. Having lost both parents myself, I hope that you can focus on the parts of your father’s life that made his time living instead of just being. If he got some of that from baseball, then remember that well!
My condolences also to you and your family Christy.I always enjoyed reading his posts from Arizona.
Really sorry to hear that. I always enjoyed reading Ty’s comments. He seemed like a fun, upbeat guy. A true Cubs fan. Thoughts and prayers will be with you and your family.
I really enjoyed the hell out of Ty’s spring training updates. Seemed like such a great guy. Christy, my prayers are with you and your family. I totally wished I could have met him like I wish I could meet everyone that contributes to BN. I fucking hate it more that Ty couldn’t see the Cubs win a World Series in his lifetime.
This is very sad. RIP, Ty.
I am so very sorry to hear that Ty has passed away. He was definitely a great contributor to this site and I always loved seeing his thoughts on our prospects and spring training. Christy, My thoughts and prayers will be with you and your family.
Christy,
I read and enjoyed Ty’s posts here. Bless you and your family, and rest in peace, Ty.
Christy, thank you very much for informing us. Ty was a regular commentator on here, and we always enjoyed his posts. My condolences to the family. May the Cubs win one tonight in your father’s honor.
I know I KEEP saying this, but is Cardenas EVER going to play??? Send him down already if you aren’t going to use him. The kid was hot with the bat when he was brought up.
But has failed at every oppertunity since. He really has failed to impress me at the majors so far.
Really sorry to hear that Christy. God Bless him and your family.
Christy, I am very sorry to hear of your father’s passing. My prayers are with your family. He will be missed.
Didn’t know your dad, but if he bled blue, he was “family”…….my condolences to you and your family.
Sorry to hear about your father Christy. My condolences to you and your family. R.I.P. Ty.
cubs just have to many hitters that arent doing anything, castro, lahair, and soranio to a degree are the only players that you can count on, you have to wait on those players to do something. the others may get on base but those 3 are the only ones that can drive them in, you can have a major league outfield with 3 hrs combined and expect to compete
F’ING bullpen. Dammit Maine.
Lendy Castillo to DL Scott Maine to MLB Dewitt cleared waivers to AAA and maybe possible Amaya move down?!
Should send Maine and Bowden down and call up bellvieu and corpas up. Anything is worth a look right now.
Aw, damn. Our bullpen is disappointing this year. Why isn’t our offense completely clicking yet?
Can we say Bowden is a rule 5 and sing “Shipping out to Boston” He has no out pitch.
Scott Maine?? Really. Belliveau couldnt do any better
Matt Garza is worst fielding pitcher ever. bar none
I’m also done with the Geo Soto as Cubs catcher thing.
Advanced Box Score
It was a rough day for the cubs. Garza was good but not great, the bullpen fell apart again, and the cubs just could not hit. DeJesus 1-4 2B continues to play hard. He has been consistent all year. Campana 0-2 2K could not do much damage today. Castro 0-4 1K. I know Castro gets a ton of hits, but I’m not a huge fan of his. All of his ABs tonight did not look too good. It just seems he tries to hit everything especially when there is a runner in scoring position. He is great at making contact, but patients would allow him to get good pitches to hit. LaHair 0-4 K could not continue his on-base streak. He reached on an error which does not extend the streak. Soriano 1-3 HR 2RBI has hit HR in back to back games. He looks to be getting hot, but it was not enough tonight. Stewart 0-3 K and Soto 0-3 both did not show up tonight with the bat. Barney 1-3 1K is on a bit of a hot streak which is good to see. Baker 0-1 K, Mather 0-1 K. Lastly, my shout out goes to Matt Garza. Probably the only person who did a good job tonight. Good luck tomorrow Volstad. It maybe your last shot as a starter.
Are you sure, I thought the streak continues no matter how you get on base
No, it has to be something that counts towards OBP.
There is a separate “reached base safely” streak that includes errors and fielder’s choices, but that is obviously less prestigous. Starlin had a killer RBS streak going for a while…
But that has to be one of the best 0/4 games I’ve ever seen. Lahair looked really good tonight, as far as pitch recognition, patience, and taking good hacks. Had a hard hit line drive to the warning track in left, and a diving stop by the 1B on a hard hit groundball. I think if you asked Lahair, he’d say he had a good game.
“the bullpen fell apart again”
Except the 7 runs Camp,Maine,Bowden gave up the Bull pen held them scoreless.
Where did the offense go?
The offense went with the hanging curveballs and get-me-over fastballs that they’d been seeing earlier this week…
What 1B leads MLB in HRs.Our main man LaHair.Her should be on the All-star Team without a doubt.Cant Castro look at Lahairs approach and learn something. He has 4 BB this year even Sori has 6
Agreed. Lahair tends to get to 0-2 a lot but always seems to battle back and still see a lot of pitches. Castro seems to be struggling with the selective hitting approach and isnt swinging at good pitches and taking pitches he should be crushing.
Pitch identification is not something a player learns, it’s a fundamental tool that he does or does not have. Castro has amazing contact skills, but it’s not clear that he has anything near LaHair’s pitch recognition skills. If Castro doesn’t have them, then watching LaHair bat will help him about as much as watching people drive will help a color-blind person learn to see red.
I am not sure that is right. I played for several years and developed an eye for pitch identification, because I sure didn’t have that ability before. It can be a fundamental tool that someone just has, but there are plenty of players that have to learn it on their own. But I do agree that there is no point watching LaHair bat, Castro would be better off asking someone to pitch to him and forcing himself to concentrate on the ball spin (among parts of pitch recognition).
If pitch recognition could be taught, then it would be taught. However, teams like the Sox and Yanks that are loaded with guys who work counts do not do this by teaching their players how to recognize pitches, but instead by signing guys who can do this.
The single best statistic for assessing how well a batter identifies pitches is walk rates. It’s a common belief that many players improve on this over their careers, but examples of guys who truly show significant improvement are very rare: most guys walk at the same rate (plus/minus stochastic fluctuations) throughout their MLB career. (We did see one of the rare exceptions in Sosa: and that almost certainly had much more to do with his increasing his HR totals by nearly 50% than did PEDs.)
I think the last time you brought the walk-rate subject up was the time this site got its first “BetterMath” lesson!