Thursday, June 18, 2009

Indians @ Cubs 6/19/09 Preview



Time: 1:20 PM
TV: Comcast SportsNet
Radio: WGN AM 720
Pitching Matchup:
Rich Harden (4-3, 4.53 ERA)

Indians vs Rich Harden

vs.
Cliff Lee (4-6, 2.88 ERA)

Cubs vs Cliff Lee

This is one of those series I had circled on my Cubs schedule since March. Kerry Wood and Mark DeRosa will both return to Wrigley Field this weekend and will both most likely get huge standing ovations. As I said earlier today, hopefully the only time we see Kerry in this series is in a non-save situation with us being up big.

Now on to the pitching matchup and it is a great one. Rich Harden and Cliff Lee. Rich Harden is a much better pitcher at night. This year he has a 5.28 ERA in 6 appearances during the daytime while he has a 3.32 ERA in 3 starts. Rich is coming off a 2-0 loss on June 13th where he gave up 2 runs on 5 hits in 6 innings against the Minnesota Twins in his first appearance since coming off the disabled list dropping him to 4-3 on the year. Harden did strike out nine Twins in the game. Some notables for the Indians against Rich Harden, Travis Hafner is 4-9 lifetime with a home run, 5 RBI's, and 4 walks. Victor Martinez is 1-5 against Harden good for a .200 batting average. The only other Indian that has gotten a hit off Rich Harden is Ryan Garko who is 1-1 career against him.

Cliff Lee is coming off one of the best starts of his season as he no-hit the St. Louis Cardinals through 7 innings on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. Lee ended up going the distance in that game allowing only 3 hits and not allowing a run. He threw only 93 pitches in that game. The game only lasted 1 hour and 58 minutes. Lee was last year's AL Cy Young award winner after going 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA. Lee's Indians only won 81 games last year so 22 wins was that more impressive. While Lee's record isn't that impressive thus far in the season (4-6), he's been just as impressive posting a 2.88 ERA in 14 starts. If the Cubs hit like they have these past two months (excluding the last 2 innings today), look for this to be another dominating effort by a pitcher against us.

Only 5 guys on the Cubs have faced Cliff Lee in their career. Alfonso Soriano is 3-8 against Lee with a home run and 3 RBI's. Milton Bradley is 2-9 with a home run and 3 RBI's. Reed Johnson is 2-5 against Lee.

Tomorrow's weather forecast for this game does not look good at all:
Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 1pm. Some of the storms could be severe. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 86. West southwest wind between 10 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
But then again, today's weather forecast didn't look good as well and they got the game in with no problems so hopefully the same will go for this one.

Let's win this one and get on a little win streak. The NL Central is still very winnable and ours for the taking. Go Cubs!

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