Preview for the Game on April 11th

Preview for the Game on April 11^th

San Francisco Giants (6-3) at Chicago Cubs (3-4)

Tomorrow is the first game of a four game series that the Chicago Cubs will have against the San Francisco Giants. The game is at the Friendly Confines at 2:20pm eastern time. The Cubs can take advantage of that fact that they got a day off today, whereas the Giants finished their series against the Colorado Rockies today. The Cubs probable pitcher for tomorrow’s game will be Scott Feldman (0-1), who was supposed to pitch against the Brewers until the game got rained out. Feldman is coming off a poor outing against the Atlanta Braves and will be facing a talented Giants lineup. I believe the best case scenario for Feldman is that he has good command of his pitches and that the wind is blowing in. If the wind is not blowing in tomorrow, Feldman can be vulnerable if his best pitch, his sinker ball, is flat or high in the strike zone. Tomorrow will be a tough matchup for Feldman, as he has to face last’s year National League MVP, Buster Poesy, and World Series MVP, Pablo Sandoval.

Scott Feldman will be facing the tough RHP Ryan Vogelsong (0-1), who has an era of 8.44. Vogelsong is coming off a bad performance against the St. Louis Cardinals, but Vegelsong’s outing wasn’t as bad as his numbers indicate. Vogelsong struggled against a great lineup that is so good that they can make any pitcher look terrible. Vogelsong’s pitches are a four seam fastball in the low-90s, a cutter that he uses to attack left-handed batters, a slider that is his best breaking ball pitch, a misleading change up and a two seam fastball that he uses to attack right-handed batters.

The Chicago Cubs batters will have to face a challenging opponent in tomorrow’s game because I can promise you that Vogelsong will keep the Giants in the game because he usually pitches a quality start (which is when the starting pitcher goes 6 innings and gives up three earned runs or fewer). Nate Schierholtz should have the best advantage against Vogelsong because he has seen the most of Vogelsong compared to any other Cubbie because Schierholtz was a teammate of Vogelsong when Nate was a Giant. I’m assuming that because the Cubs got an off day because of the weather that Welington Castillo and Alberto Gonzalez will be in the lineup in tomorrow’s game. The Cubs hitters have a chance to do well in tomorrow’s game because Vogelsong could struggle if the wind is blowing out and the Cubs need to exploit that if they get the chance. The hitters are going to need to put some runs up on the scoreboard because I’m not sure if Feldman is going to have the greatest outing in tomorrow’s game.

My prediction for tomorrow’s game is that the Cubs pull out an upset with a score of 5 to 4. I believe that Feldman will struggle again with his command and will walk too many batters, but the offense will bail him out and give him his first victory as a Cubbie. My predicted player of the game is Nate Schierholtz because this is a revenge game for Nate because the Giants traded him last year to the Phillies and the Giants never played him as an everyday player. Therefore, I’m taking that Nate will have a big game and show the Giants what they are missing out on.