Morning Marquee: Chicago Cubs travel back to AZ; Marquee back up at Wrigley Field

After sweeping the first two games of the regular season, the Chicago Cubs find themselves back in Arizona for more baseball. This time, they’ll take on the new-look pitching staff of the Arizona Diamondbacks that now consists of Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller. Will they be able to continue their hot streak?

No, the Cubs are not able to win every game against every team that is put in their way. But they showed the entire world that they are, in fact, one of the best all-around baseball teams in the entire league. Both Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester pitched extremely well over 14 innings of work, allowing just one earned run between the two.

And then you have the bullpen. Justin Grimm, Travis Wood, Trevor Cahill and Pedro Strop each put in some work during those two games in Los Angeles and handled their business as well. That’s one specific section of the team that had its questions entering the season.

It’ll be interesting to see how they handle that Diamondbacks lineup that features former Chicago Cubs catcher Welington Castillo and first base slugger, Paul Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt has always been a force to be reckoned with since entering the league, throwing his name in the race for N.L. MVP year-after-year.

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On the other side of the diamond, you’ll have Anthony Rizzo looking to do the same. The heart and soul of this team finished fourth in voting last year for MVP honors after hitting 31 homers and driving in 101.

This series will be a battle between 44’s as the Dbacks sit in third place and the Cubs trailing the 3-0 Pittsburgh Pirates by half a game. Surely, the crowd will be packed with excited Cubs fans as their World Series favorites take the field for this four-game set.

And now moving onto Wrigley Field. As we all know, Wrigleyville has grown over the past year. With renovations expected to continue for several more years, the world-famous marquee was brought down following the 2015 campaign to avoid damage during construction.

With the Cubs scheduled to return home next week, the 81-year-old marquee was reassembled. There was a video posted on the Chicago Tribune’s official Facebook page showing workers putting it back together piece-by-piece. Thankfully, it was installed without any mishaps which is a relief for Cubs fans around the globe.

Here are a few stories you may have missed:

‘Cubs: Can they protect Ramirez and Szczur?‘

‘Cubs: Szczur sparks offense as Cubs, Lester sweep Angels‘

‘Cubbies Crib staff predictions for 2016 season‘

‘Padres fail to score in sweep by Dodgers‘ – Friars on Base

‘Blue Jays’ Aaron Sanchez: Waiver wire target‘ – Fantasy Baseball CrackerJacks