Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET the Chicago Cubs will open up the 2015 MLB season on ESPN against the St. Louis Cardinals on ESPN in an NL Central battle that can be live streamed for free by clicking this link. Cubs fans can listen to the game on WGN 720, while Cardinals fans may do likewise on KMOX 1120. Jon Lester will take the hill for the Cubs against ace right-hander Adam Wainwright.
This will be the beginning of a high-pressure season for the Cubs, who have big expectations after adding ace left-hander Jon Lester this offseason. Lester will be on the mound tonight as a veteran leader for a club mostly laden with younger talent.
"We were pretty transparent: It was 'It's gonna take a few years, we're gonna have to do this the right way, that probably means a lot of losses," chairman Tom Ricketts said. "But I think right now, everyone knows that we've got a good young team and we've added some good veterans this offseason. We have a chance this year. We'll compete for our division title and everyone's excited about that."
The Cardinals, meanwhile, are just trying to make small improvements on a division-winning club from a year ago. They suffered the tragic loss of their top prospect Oscar Taveras during the 2015 postseason, but made an intriguing move to replace im-snapping up right fielder Jason Heyward.
Heyward only hit 11 home runs in 2014 and batted .271, but his on-base percentage (.351) and his defensive ability (32 defensive runs saved) make him more of a sabermetric darling.
This series may be a foreshadowing of the divisional chase down the season's stretch run.
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