Preview for the Game on April 9th

Preview for the Game on April 9^th

Milwaukee Brewers (2-4) at Chicago Cubs (2-4)

The Chicago Cubs can get revenge for their tough loss from today in tomorrow’s game against the Brewers. The game will be the first night game at Wrigley this year with a start time of 8:05pm eastern time. The Cubs will be sending Travis Wood to the mound tomorrow night, who is (1-0) and is coming off an outstanding outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wood will need to be effective with his cutter tomorrow because Milwaukee’s hottest hitter and their leadoff man, Norichika Aoki, is a lefty batter and the cutter is Wood’s best pitch against lefties. Travis Wood went 6 scoreless innings against the Pirates and only allowed one hit and two walks and he should have the stuff and confidence to take advantage of the Brew Crew’s early injuries. There isn’t any reason to doubt Wood’s ability to get a win tomorrow.

The probable pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers is the young hard-throwing RHP Wily Peralta. Peralta is a very talented young pitcher, but like every other young talented pitcher Peralta can occasionally overthrow his pitches which causes him to lose command on his pitches. Peralta got hit hard and had a hard time against the Colorado Rockies in his opening start last week, but the Cubs shouldn’t be expecting that poor of an outing against them. The pitches in Peralta’s repertoire are a four seam fastball that is in the mid-90s, a two seam fastball that is around the mid-90s as well, a slider that can be nasty at times, and a changeup that he rarely uses. Peralta is really just a two pitch pitcher mainly focusing on his fastball and slider.

The Cubs hitters will get their second crack at Milwaukee’s struggling starting pitching staff in tomorrow’s game. If the Cubs hitters can use Peralta’s mistakes against him, they can score enough runs to give Travis Wood run support. I believe that Welington Castillo will keep his bat hot tomorrow and will have a solid game against Wily Peralta. I’m suspect that Alberto Gonzalez will be back in the lineup at second base and Brent Lillibridge will get a day off. The Cubbies hitters need to have patience against Peralta and not chase his tricky slider. If the Cubs fall behind tomorrow, they should have the confidence that they can make a comeback because the Brewers bullpen has been ineffective in this early season.

My prediction for the game is the Chicago Cubs will pull out a victory against the Brewers with a score of 6 to 2. I know I have I taken the Cubbies in the last five games, but sooner or later I’m going to be right and I hope I’m right about tomorrow’s game because I don’t see them winning on Wednesday against the Brewers starting pitcher Kyle Lohse. My predicted player of the game tomorrow is Anthony Rizzo because I think he is best suited for Peralta’s fastball. I also predict that Wood will go seven strong innings with 8 strikeouts and only give up one earned run.