Scouting report: Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field

Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field

TV:

NBC Sports Chicago Plus Thursday; NBC Sports Chicago Friday and Sunday; ABC 7 Saturday

Radio:

WSCR 670-AM

Pitching matchups:

The Cubs' Kyle Hendricks (1-1) vs. Chase Anderson (2-1) Thursday at 7:05 p.m.; Yu Darvish (0-2) vs. Brent Suter (1-2) Friday at 1:20 p.m.; Jose Quintana (2-1) vs. Junior Guerra (2-0) Saturday at 1:20 p.m. Tyler Chatwood (1-3) vs. Zach Davies (2-2) Sunday at 1:20 p.m.

At a glance:

The Cubs took three of four from the Brewers at Miller Park during the season-opening road trip. It was during that series that Brewers closer Corey Knebel suffered a hamstring injury that will likely keep him out several more weeks. Josh Hader has taken over as the Brewers' closer, and he had 3 saves entering Wednesday night's game at Kansas City. Lorenzo Cain's return to Milwaukee has been huge. He went into Wednesday with a line of .316/.421/.506 with 3 homers and 8 RBI. Eric Thames led the team with 7 homers. The Brewers ranked third in homers, and their pitchers were fourth in the National League in ERA (3.32). A recent surge has put the Cubs at or near the top of the NL in key offensive categories. They went into Wednesday night's game at Cleveland second in runs scored, first in batting average and first by a large margin in on-base percentage (.350). The Cubs' team ERA of 4.04 was ninth in the NL, and they are looking for both Darvish (6.86) and Quintana (7.78) to lower their ERAs.

Next:

Colorado Rockies at Wrigley Field, Monday-Wednesday