The Chicago Cubs will take on the St. Louis Cardinals at 8:05 PM EST on Sunday night at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. This is the first time Jon Lester pitches for real in a Cubs uniform and the first time the Cubs will host Opening Night Baseball.
The Cubs have a very tough test in the Cardinals, who are considered the favorites in the National League Central division. However, the Cubs believe that they can be the power house of that division as well. If they want to make it happen, the Cubbies will have to take down the Cardinals consistently. This time around, it will be Lester against Adam Wainwright.
"I want this N.L. Central to be considered the best division in baseball," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "I want it to be that strong. The stronger it is, the faster we get better. That's the way I look at it."
Lester, who will get the ball for the Cubs, went 0-1 with a 6.48 ERA this spring. The 31-year-old played in three games and 8.1 innings. Lester, who is a lefty, gave up six runs on 11 hits and one walk. He also struckout nine, which is quite impressive. The ace carried a 1.440 WHIP with a ratio of 1.1 walks per nine innings.
The Cardinals will send out their ace, Wainwright, to take on Lester and the Cubs. The 33-year-old got a few more reps in during Spring Training than Lester did. Wainwright went 0-1 with a 3.14 ERA over three games and 14.1 innings pitched. He gave up six runs (five earned) on 18 hits, three walks and a home run. The strikeout number was seven, which is low for the righty. He finished spring with a 1.465 WHIP and an outstanding 0.6 home runs per nine innings. However, the 2.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio will have to improve during the regular season.
Chicago has brought in a new manager, a new ace, and a few new faces into the action. In addition, the Cubs have some of the best young talent in the game of baseball. A sneak preview of that young talent is Kris Bryant, who was sent down after hitting .425 with nine homers and 15 RBIs over 40 at-bats. He had an outstanding spring.
"I really wanted my performance this spring to matter," Bryant said. "I just felt it didn't matter as much (to them) as it did to me."
However, the new manager in Maddon is sure to make a difference with the Cubs. He has brought in Lester as the brand new ace and has made him the cornerstone of this Chicago team. General manager Jed Hoyer and President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein helped to bring in some key players that seem to fly under the radar: Dexter Fowler and Miguel Montero. This team finally has a very good possibility of making the postseason.
On Sunday, all of baseball will see if Lester can live up to his $155-million contract.
The Cubs superstar first baseman, Anthony Rizzo, made the claim that the NL Central title "is going to happen this year" for Chicago's North Side.
If the North Siders want to make this happen, Maddon will have to be able to develop the young players. Bryant is MLB ready without a doubt. However, Maddon will have to take players like Javier Baez, Addison Russell, and Jorge Soler,who are raw, and turn them into stars because that is what they are capable of becoming.
As for the Cardinals, they acquired Jason Heyward in a pretty big offseason trade. Manager Mike Matheny has decided to put Heyward in the No. 2 hole. Heyward will be able to help St. Louis put runs on the board, which makes him a huge factor for the team if they want to win a division.
"They have a chance to be very good. We have a chance to be very good," Wainwright said. "We'll see where that goes. But I do remember playing games there [in 2007 and '08] that were big energy, fans going crazy, both teams were in the pennant race. That's fun. It's a fun place to play when it's like that."
The Cardinals have four straight National League Championship Series berths, two World Series appearances and one title in the past four years.
The Cubs have been struggling mightily since their consecutive division titles 2007 and 2008. They are just trying to prove that they can level the playing grounds on Sunday night against St. Louis.
"We can't expect anything to be given to us," said Maddon. "If we're going to ascend within this division, we're going to have to take it."