The Chicago Cubs are back at it tonight, this time against the first-place Brewers in Milwaukee.
Pitching tonight for the Cubs is Kyle Hendricks, who’s coming off his best start of the season (and best start by Game Score since the end of 2020). Sure, it was just 7.0 innings against the Pirates, but that same team tagged him for six runs over 3.2 IP in Pittsburgh two starts prior, so … you’ll take it and be happy.
Diving a little deeper, Hendricks’ velocity was up a bit in that most recent start against the Pirates, and he almost completely abandoned the curveball for more heaters. But was the change simply to try something different against the Pirates, in particular (14.1% curveball usage in Game 1, 1.3% in Game 2)? Was he just feeling good about his fastball? Was it about facing the same team twice in close succession (which is not unlike tonight’s outing against Milwaukee?). I’m not really sure, but I’ll be interested to see how often he drops the hammer tonight for that reason.
Game time is 7:10 and the Cubs should really start thinking about winning some more ballgames.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (8-11) at Milwaukee Brewers (13-7) – Friday, April 29 at 7:10 CT on Marquee, 670 The Score
Starting Pitchers
Brewers: Adrian Houser (R)
versus
Cubs: Kyle Hendricks (R)
Chicago Cubs (Lineup Discussion):
1. Rafael Ortega, DH
2. Jonathan Villar, 2B
3. Willson Contreras, C
4. Ian Happ, LF
5. Seiya Suzuki, RF
6. Alfonso Rivas, 1B
7. Patrick Wisdom, 3B
8. Jason Heyward, CF
9. Nico Hoerner, SS
Milwaukee Brewers:
1. Kolten Wong, 2B
2. Willy Adames, SS
3. Christian Yelich, LF
4. Andrew McCutchen, DH
5. Rowdy Tellez, 1B
6. Hunter Renfroe, RF
7. Omar Narváez, C
8. Lorenzo Cain, CF
9. Jace Peterson, 3B