Milwaukee Brewers (0-1, fifth in the NL Central) vs. Chicago Cubs (1-0, third in the NL Central)
Chicago; Saturday, 1:05 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Brewers: Corbin Burnes (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP, 0 strikeouts) Cubs: Yu Darvish (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP, 0 strikeouts)
LINE: Cubs favored by 1 1/2 runs; over/under is 8 1/2 runs
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After an Opening Day victory Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Chicago Cubs will aim for a 2-0 start to the season when they take the field Saturday afternoon.
The Cubs, coming off a complete game shutout performance from pitcher Kyle Hendricks, will hand the ball to Yu Darvish for the second game in the three-game set. Darvish, who struggled in the first inning of his last appearance, an exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox on Monday, will hope to build on his performance over the final four-plus innings of that contest as he looks to jump out of the gate strong.
Darvish posted a 6-8 record and a 3.98 ERA last season, but excelled in the second half of the campaign as he finally started to find the form that led the Cubs to ink him to a six-year contract prior to the 2018 season.
As usual, Victor Caratini will do the catching for the Cubs with Darvish on the hill, batting seventh for the North Siders. Jason Kipnis will start and play second base for the Cubs, batting eighth in David Ross’ lineup.
Willson Contreras will serve as the designated hitter:
The Cubs finished 37-39 against NL Central Division opponents in 2019. Chicago hit .252 as a team last season and averaged 3.4 extra base hits per game.
The Brewers finished 45-31 against NL Central Division opponents in 2019. Milwaukee hit .246 as a team and averaged 3.4 extra base hits per game last year.
Chicago Baseball
INJURIES: Cubs: Jose Quintana: (left thumb), Daniel Descalso: (ankle).
Brewers: Ray Black: (shoulder), Brett Anderson: (blister).
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
