Friday, June 19, 2009

Indians @ Cubs 6/20/09 Preview

TV: WGN
Radio: WGN AM 720
Time: 12:05 PM

Pitching Matchup:
Ted Lilly (7-4, 2.94 ERA)

vs.
Tomo Ohka (0-1, 4.24 ERA)

The Cubs are coming off two dramatic comeback wins and are looking for a 3 game win streak. Ted Lilly has been fantastic this season posting a 2.94 ERA in 13 starts thus far. In Ted's last start, he went 7.2 innings giving up 2 runs on 9 hits in a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins. Ted has easily been the most consistent Cubs starter in the rotation. His shortest outing was 6 innings in his first start of the year against Houston. No Indian has really had success against Ted Lilly in the past. Jamey Carroll is 3-10 with a home run and 3 RBI's. Mark DeRosa is 2-10 against Lilly with a home run.

Tomo Ohka is coming off a good outing on June 13th against the St. Louis Cardinals in just his 1st start of the season. Ohka went 7 innings allowing 7 hits and 2 runs in a 3-1 loss to the Cardinals dropping him to 0-1 on the year. Ohka threw 96 pitches in the outing, 69 of those for strikes. The Cubs hottest hitter, Derrek Lee, has had a ton of success against Ohka in his career. Lee is a career 7-20 against Ohka with 3 home runs and 7 RBI's. Alfonso Soriano is the only other Cub with success against Ohka. Soriano is a career 2-2 against him with a walk. The other Cubs with career at-bats against Ohka include Reed Johnson, Koyie Hill, Carlos Marmol, Aaron Miles, and Aaron Heilman. Those 5 guys are a combined 0-14 vs Ohka.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I will be attending this game. My 2nd game of the season, the first being that Sunday Night disaster against the Los Angeles Dodgers which was one of the worst baseball games I have ever attended.

The weather is finally going to cooperate for once as it is supposed to be sunny with a high of around 84 degrees. Let's take advantage of the nice weather and make it 3 in a row and get on a long win streak. Go Cubs!

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