Coming into this series against the Brewers, the Cubs would’ve been mostly fine by simply avoiding the sweep. Winning two games, then, was (and remains) a perfectly great outcome. Â And yet, here we are with two wins already in the bag and two more games to play.
And on top of that, the Cubs have a pretty favorable matchup against the lefty Brent Suter this afternoon.
Suter, 28, is in just his second Major League season and he’s bounced back and forth between the bullpen/rotation and the Minors/Majors in each. He did go five scoreless innings against the Pirates his last time out, but lasted just 3.0 innings against the same Pirates in the start before that. With plenty of righties on the mound and fairly severe splits for Suter, I think the Cubs offense can get to him.
And if they can’t, Kyle Hendricks will do his best to keep the Brewers down.
In case you’ve forgotten, Hendricks has been very good lately and made his best start of the season the last time out: 7.2 IP, 6H, 1ER, 1BB, 5Ks against the Cardinals. If he can keep up this brilliant second-half pace, the Brewers will have their work cut out for them.
A win today and this weekend was nothing short of a wild success. Let’s see if the Cubs do it.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (86-67) at Milwaukee Brewers (81-73)Â – 12:05 CT on FOX, 670 The Score
Game Thread and Series Preview
Your game thread is down in the comments, so let’s have some good, clean (safe-for-work) fun today.
Starting Pitchers
Cubs: Kyle Hendricks (R): 3.22 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 3.94 xFIP; 2.84 K/BB
versus
Brewers: Brent Suter (L): 3.41 ERA, 3.77 FIP, 4.18 xFIP; 2.76 K/BB
Milwaukee Brewers:
- Eric Sogard, 2B
- Neil Walker, 1B
- Ryan Braun, LF
- Travis Shaw, 3B
- Eric Thames, RF
- Stephen Vogt, C
- Orlando Arcia, SS
- Brett Phillips, CF
- Brett Suter, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Jon Jay, LF
- Kris Bryant, 3B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
- Addison Russell, SS
- Javy Baez, 2B
- Ian Happ, RF
- Kyle Hendricks, P