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The Chicago Cubs (15-14) are playing above .500 baseball and are looking to extend their season-high six-game winning streak tonight when right-hander Ian Snell and the Pittsburgh Pirates (13-17) head to Wrigley to take on lefty Ted Lilly at 8:05pm ET tonight.
Lilly's first career start against the Pirates came last Tuesday - his shortest outing of the year. He allowed 5 runs in 5.1 innings and didn't receive a decision.
Snell is coming off his shortest outing of the season, also. Last Wednesday, he experienced some control problems, giving up four runs in five innings and issuing four walks with a hit batter in the 7-1 loss to the Cubs. Snell fell to 1-3 with a 8.31 ERA in four career starts against Chicago.
After a frustrating start, Alfonso Soriano has matched the longest hitting streak of his career with his fourth 15-game run, batting .359 during the streak. Soriano's run is just a bit longer than first baseman Derrek Lee's, who's hit in 14 consecutive games and is batting .450 with 10 RBIs during the streak. He's reached base in all 29 games this season and is hitting .414 overall.
The Pirates have won seven of their last 11 at Wrigley Field.
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Right-hander Javier Vazquez and the Chicago White Sox (14-14) will head to the Dome to take on Boof Bonser and the banged-up Minnesota Twins (16-15) at 8:10pm ET tonight.
With their batting champ Joe Mauer sidelined for a couple weeks with a strained quad muscle, the Twins are looking for ways to get men on base as the 24-year-old catcher is hitting a team-best .353 with 14 RBIs and 10 doubles. Additionally, cleanup hitter Michael Cuddyer has been out for the past five games with a bruised back, but could return to the lineup today.
The Sox are fighting injuries of their own, having lost designated hitter Jim Thome to a rib cage injury and leadoff hitter Scott Podsednik with groin problems in the last month. Podsednik is expected to miss four more weeks, while the club is hoping Thome can return after a brief minor league rehab stint.
Vazquez has lost all four of his starts at Minnesota and has amassed a 7.88 ERA there while Bonser looks for his first win since Sept. 25th. He's 0-1 with a 5.23 ERA in two starts against the White Sox.
The division rivals took one game each earlier this season at U.S. Cellular and also split 10 games in Minnesota last year.
[MLB]
3 comments:
BOOOOOOOOOOF!
It's gonna be a hard couple of weeks for the Twinkies, but hopefully Cuddy is better and players like Bartlett and Castillo can step up.
Pirahnas attack!
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