Chicago @ Texas preview
Choctaw Stadium
Last Meeting ( Mar 24, 2010 ) Chi. Cubs 12, Texas 1
The Texas Rangers are on top and looking to stay there and the Chicago Cubs will continue their search for consistency as the teams open interleague play with a series that starts today in Arlington, Texas.
At 24-18, Texas is the only team in the American League West over .500 and has a four-game lead on the Oakland Athletics. The Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were expected to contend for the division crown but they have not been able to keep pace with the Rangers, who are 17-7 at home and boast a gaudy 10-4 mark in the division.
While the Mariners made a splash in the offseason with pickups like pitcher Cliff Lee and the Angels added designated hitter Hideki Matsui to an already talented roster, Rangers DH and part-time right fielder Vladimir Guerrero has proven to be the best pickup by any team in the division thus far.
The former Angel is leading the team with a .340 batting average and 33 RBIs and is tied for the team lead in home runs with eight.
Texas, which is 5-1 in its last six against the National League Central, has won four straight since being swept in a three-game series in Toronto last weekend. The Rangers banged out 20 hits on Thursday, including four by Nelson Cruz, who added four RBI, three runs scored and his eighth homer of the season in a 13-7 victory over Baltimore.
Colby Lewis (3-2, 3.68 ERA) takes the mound for the Rangers in search of his fourth win. Lewis started the season with a 3-0 mark in his first four starts but has gone 0-2 with a pair of no-decisions in his last four times out.
The Cubs (19-23) are five games out of first in the NL Central but playing some of their best ball of the season.
Chicago, which is 1-6 in its last seven interleague games, has losing streaks of three, four and two games already this month and is coming off a tough 5-4 loss at NL East-leading Philadelphia on Thursday that snapped a four-game winning streak.
Chicago rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the sixth to tie the game on a solo home run by Kosuke Fukudome in the eighth, only to have left-hander John Grabow (0-3) allow an RBI single to Raul Ibanez in the home half of the frame.
The Cubs turn to Ted Lilly (1-3, 4.65) to help them resume their winning ways. Lilly is 4-4 lifetime in 13 games – 12 starts - against Texas. The left-hander had lost three straight before a no-decision on May 14 in Chicago’s 4-3 victory over Pittsburgh.