There’s nothing like a Friday afternoon game at Wrigley Field against a divisional rival, right? It just puts me in a great mood.
Indeed, in a short while, Yu Darvish and the Chicago Cubs will kick things off against Brent Suter and the Brewers at Wrigley Field, as the Cubs look to secure – at worst – a series split over the weekend. Of course, to do so, they’ll have to win without Kris Bryant once again, as he continues to heal up from getting hit in the head last weekend.
Things are looking good for a return tomorrow, but we’ll wait and see.
As for Darvish, I’m not going to go into the gory details right now, because we all know the story: He’s struggled to open the year, because he’s had issues finishing strong when things start to fall apart. To be fair, his best start of the season did come against the Brewers back on April 7, so let’s see if he can’t make it work again.
Starting opposite Darvish is Suter. And the lefty has had some pretty significant, traditional lefty/righty splits this year. That explains why it’s David Bote, not Tommy La Stella, covering for Bryant at third and Ian Happ, not Kyle Schwarber, in left.
All things considered, I like the Cubs chances today. Now, let’s see if they can actually get it done and move to 3 games above .500 for the first time this season.
Game Info
Milwaukee Brewers (16-10) at Chicago Cubs (12-10) – 7:05 CT on NBC Sports Chicago, MLBN (out-of-market only), 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: Yu Darvish (R): 6.86 ERA, 5.02 FIP; 1.91 K/BB
versus
Brewers: Brent Suter (L): 5.68 ERA, 4.06 FIP; 3.17 K/BB
Milwaukee Brewers Lineup:
- Lorenzo Cain, CF
- Christian Yelich, LF
- Jesus Aguilar, 1B
- Travis Shaw, 3B
- Domingo Santana, RF
- Hernan Perez, 2B
- Eric Sogard, SS
- Manny Pina, C
- Brent Suter, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
- Javy Baez, 2B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Willson Contreras, C
- David Bote, 3B
- Ian Happ, LF
- Addison Russell, SS
- Jason Heyward, RF
- Yu Darvish, P