Morning Marquee: Chicago Cubs welcome in Phillies for weekend series

Following their first losing road series of the season, the Chicago Cubs return home to take on the Philadelphia Phillies. It will be a three-game home stand starting this afternoon when Jon Lester takes the mound.

Remember the last time Philadelphia stopped by for a weekend set? Yeah, Cole Hamels pitched a no-hitter, defeating Jake Arrieta and the Cubbies, sparking Arrieta’s win streak which is still alive and well despite St. Louis jumping all over him.

Chicago has struggled in May, dropping back-to-back series’ to the Milwaukee Brewers and San Fransisco Giants before taking two of three from the Cardinals. This team couldn’t possibly make it through the year without hitting a few bumps in the road.

Not to mention, they lost three in a row for the first time this season but managed to get themselves back on track with a two-game winning streak entering today.

More from Chicago Cubs News

Southpaw Jon Lester will be on the mound tonight following his shortest outing of the year, or as a Cub all together, when the Giants chased him after 2 2/3 innings of work.

Lester was tagged for five earned runs on six hits including a home run. Chicago manhandled Jake Peavy just the night before and chased him early as well. So maybe that was a little payback for their veteran?

Either way, the Chicago Cubs are going to need to step it up. While the Phillies may be in third place, they are no push over and should not be overlooked. The Cubs have struggled against teams who are in the middle of near the bottom of their division standings.

They dropped a couple of games to the San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Atlanta Braves, and Brewers, as mentioned earlier in the article. It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll perform in front of their home crowd after struggling on the road.

Now here are a few articles you may have missed:

‘Cubs: Even with the slide, they’re still the best‘

‘Cubs hang on late to down Cardinals‘

‘Cubs: MLB rule changes could be coming‘

‘Royals place Moustakas on DL with torn ACL‘ – Fantasy Baseball Crackerjacks

‘Asche hinting at his return to the Phillies?‘ – That Balls Outta Here

Following their first losing road series of the season, the Chicago Cubs return home to take on the Philadelphia Phillies. It will be a three-game home stand starting this afternoon when Jon Lester takes the mound.

Schedule