Happy Jake Day!
Even if today’s Brewers starter, Corbin Burnes, is “one of only three pitchers in history to have consecutive games with six-plus innings with no walks and no more than one hit allowed,” he’s not Jake Arrieta. And I love me some Jake Arrieta.
Like most of the Cubs starters this season, Arrieta has had one good start, his first against the Pirates (6.0 IP, 6H, 1ER, 1BB, 5Ks) and one bad one (6.0 IP, 7H, 2ER, 3BB, 4Ks). Of course, that’s all relative, because he was lucky enough to get good results in each of them. It’s not easy facing the same team twice in short order (even if it was the Pirates), so despite all those hits and walks in his second start of the year, Arrieta does deserve credit for getting the job done. That’s very Jon Lester of him.
So far, Arrieta has been leaning primarily on his sinker (59%) and curveball (24.3%), though he has used his slider (14.6%) a fair bit, as well. He hasn’t really broken out the changeup yet, though he seemingly reserves that for lefties (which makes sense). I wonder if we’ll see that pitch used more as the season goes on.
On the flip side, the Brewers may have a leg up with Burners on the mound, however, they’ll be without both Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich. Cain is actually heading to the injured list for a quad injury (you probably saw him pull up limp after running to first base yesterday), and Yelich is dealing with a back issue.
If the Cubs win today, they’ll (1) win the series, (2) even up the season series with the Brewers, (3) match the Brewers in the standings, and (4) return to .500.
There’s a lot on the line. Let’s get it.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (5-6) at Milwaukee Brewers (6-5) – Tuesday, April 13th at 6:40 CT on Marquee Sports Network, 670 The Score
Starting Pitchers
Brewers: Corbin Burnes (R)
versus
Cubs: Jake Arrieta (R)
Chicago Cubs (Lineup Discussion):
1. Ian Happ, CF
2. Eric Sogard, 2B
3. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
4. Joc Pederson, LF
5. Javy Baez, SS
6. Jason Heyward, RF
7. David Bote, 3B
8. Austin Romine, C
9. Jake Arrieta, P
Milwaukee Brewers:
1. Jackie Bradley, CF
2. Daniel Vogelbach, 1B
3. Travis Shaw, 3B
4. Avisail Garcia, RF
5. Omar Narvaez, C
6. Keston Hiura, 2B
7. Billy McKinney, LF
8. Luis Urias, SS
9. Corbin Burnes, P