Preview for the Game on April 18th

Preview for the Game on April 18^th

Texas Rangers (9-5) at Chicago Cubs (4-9)

The Chicago Cubs will be looking to get their fifth victory on the season against the Texas Rangers. The game will be played at the historic Wrigley Field at 8:05pm eastern time. The Cubbies will be sending Carlos Villanueva to the mound in tomorrow’s game because of the off day on Monday that they had and because starting pitcher Scott Feldman has some back pain. Villanueva is off to an incredible start this year by having an era of 0.64, however he still hasn’t have a decision in a game. Tomorrow will be a tough matchup for Villanueva and provide Cubs fan with what they should expect from Villanueva this year. If Villanueva can keep Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus off base, then he should be able to get his first W as a Cubbie.

The opposing probable pitcher will be right-handed pitcher Justin Grimm, Grimm is getting a start for the Rangers because of the injury to Matt Harrison. Grimm is not an overpowering pitcher, but has decent control with his pitching arsenal. The pitches in Grimm’s repertoire are a four seam fastball in the low-90s, a cutter that is effective, a two-seam fastball that has some good movement to it and a changeup that he uses to slow down hitters’ bats.

Grimm doesn’t offer the Cubs hitters that tough of a matchup and it will be necessary for the Cubbies batters need to take advantage of this favorable matchup. The Cubs can jump on Grimm’s fastballs because he only has one real breaking ball pitch which would be his slider. I believe the Cub faithful will see a good performance from David DeJesus in the game tomorrow.

My prediction for tomorrow’s game is that the Cubbies pull out a win with a score of 7 to 2 and Villanueva gets his first victory this season.  I believe the Cubs hitters will be too tough for Grimm to get out and Grimm won’t be able to prevent the Cubs lineup from exploding on the Rangers. My predicted player of the game is Carlos Villanueva who will go 7 scoreless innings with 8 strikeouts in the game. I believe that the top of the lineup for the Cubbies will all have a great game and show the Rangers that the Cubs don’t need a DH to put up big numbers in a game.