Preview of the Game on April 3

Preview for the Game on April, 3

Chicago Cubs (1-0) at Pittsburgh Pirates (0-1)

The second game of the series will be played at PNC Park at 7:05pm eastern time. The probable pitcher for the Cubbies will be Edwin Jackson and will be Jackson’s debut as a Cub. Edwin Jackson is a solid and consistent pitcher, which allows him to be a reliable pitcher for the Cubs and he will likely take the mound every five days. Jackson is an experienced pitcher that has a mid-90s mph four-seam fastball, a mid-90s mph two-seam fastball that I consider to be his best pitch, a solid slider in the mid to high 80s mph and an above average curve that is in the low-80s. Edwin has pitched in some big games in his career therefore he should be able to handle whatever lineup the Pirates will come up with against him. Jackson needs to do one thing in order to beat Pittsburgh, which is to keep the baseball in the park. He has the tendency to give up the long ball and the Pirates lineup has some big named power hitters like Pedro Alarvez and Garret Jones.

The pitcher that is projected to pitch against Edwin Jackson is the veteran left-handed pitcher Wandy Rodriguez. Rodriguez is no stranger to the Chicago Cubs because the Cubs are the team that he has faced the most in his career. Wandy Rodriguez would not be classified as a powerful pitcher by any means, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t an effective pitcher. Rodriguez is an effective pitcher because he offers a crafty repertoire of pitches; his pitching repertoire is crafty because he can change location and speed of all his pitches. The way Rodriguez pitches can challenge inexperienced batters and since there are couple of hitters in the Chicago Cubs lineup that are a little inexperienced it could be a problem for the Cubs.

The second game of the season will offer a challenge to the Cubbies because last year they tended to do poorly against left-handed pitchers and they have to face a LHP that is experienced enough to get the ugly wins. Tomorrow’s game should be the debut of Scott Hairston as a Cub at right field. I would be surprised if he doesn’t debut because if manager Dale Sveum wants to utilize Hairston as a pinch hitter this year, Sveum will need to put Hairston in the lineup early so that Hairston can get his swing were it needs to be in order to have a successful year.

My prediction of the game is that the Chicago Cubs will win over the Pirates with a score of 5 to 4. I predict that Edwin Jackson will have a strong showing in his debut as Cubbie and will get the win by going 7 innings with 8 strikeouts and giving up 3 earned runs. I’m predicting that Welington Castillo will be the player of the game because he will have a great hitting performance against the LHP Wandy Rodriquez by hitting his first homerun of the year and getting a total of 3 RBIs in the game. I’m also predicting that Scott Hairston will go yard in his debut as a Cub and that Marmol will struggle again in the ninth causing Kyuji Fujikawa to have to come in to get his second save of the year.