[I’m headed to Kane County this evening to check out the Cougars. If you happen to be there, come say hi – I’ll be around the home plate area.]
Maybe a long flight out west is the best thing after a miserable loss.
The Cubs will start a four-game set in San Diego tonight at beautiful Petco Park (that reads sarcastic, but seriously), former professional home of Cubs manager Ricky Renteria. He still makes his personal home in the area, so I’m sure it will be nice to see a few friendly faces.
Jake Arrieta starts for the first time since May 13 – the Cubs skipped his last start (due to the schedule) so that he could work on some mechanical issues. Although the results have been decent for Arrieta so far, it’s clear that something was just a touch off the last two times out, and his command was quite rough. That’s probably always going to be an issue with Arrieta, but you’d like to see a little improvement, allowing him to harness his obviously fantastic stuff.
You’d also like to see Arrieta go at least six innings today, what with the marathon game yesterday, and the heavy-ish bullpen usage on Tuesday.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (16-28) at San Diego Padres (21-26), 9:10 CT on CSN.
Game Thread and Series Preview
Game threads now live here in the comments – and with Disqus, they should be even more enjoyable.
The Series Preview lives here.
Starting Pitchers
Jake Arrieta (2.70 ERA, 2.91 FIP, 4.00 xFIP; 1.63 K/BB)
versus
Eric Stults (4.50 ERA, 4.93 FIP, 4.42 xFIP; 2.63 K/BB)
San Diego Padres Lineup
(This is a guess on the Padres’ lineup based on their lineups from earlier in the week. I had to depart before the lineups were released. If someone has the opportunity to drop the actual lineups in the comments when they come up, we’d all appreciate it.)
1. Everth Cabrera, SS
2. Seth Smith, RF
3. Carlos Quentin, LF
4. Yonder Alonso, 1B
5. Jedd Gyorko, 2B
6. Cameron Maybin, CF
7. Yasmani Grandal, C
8. Eric Stults, P
9. Alexei Amarista, 3B
Chicago Cubs Lineup
1. Emilio Bonifacio, CF
2. Junior Lake, LF
3. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
4. Starlin Castro, SS
5. Mike Olt, 3B
6. Welington Castillo, C
7. Nate Schierholtz, RF
8. Darwin Barney, 2B
9. Jake Arrieta, P