Today Randy Wolf (6.05 ERA, 4.54 FIP) is facing off against Matt Garza (4.10 ERA, 4.09 FIP).

Garza's second year in the National League is not going as well as his first. His HR/9 rate has climbed from 0.6 to 1.2 which is actually more typical of Garza from his time in the American League. What we can say about Garza in 2012 is that he's been horribly inconsistent, or at the most consistent in his inconsistency: he'll put up 2 or 3 starts in a row where he gives up 2 runs or less and then will go on a streak of several more starts in which he surrenders 5 runs or more. He has not had anything in between. He's already faced the Brewers twice this season. Nyjer Morgan hits Garza well in a small sample--7 for 15--which partially explains his presence in today's lineup. (Nobody's faced Garza much except for Braun and Morgan; when Wolf and Greinke show up in the middle of most PA against, well....)

Wolf has definitely been more consistent than Garza in 2012. He'll consistently give up 3 runs or more per game. His last start in which he gave up less than 3 runs was in fact against these Cubs on May 11th where he prevented them from scoring for 6 innings. (And then the bullpen gave up 7 runs.) Jeff Baker is probably in this lineup because he is 10 for 26 against Wolf in his career. Starlin Castro is 8 for 21 but Castro should always be in a Cubs lineup if they want to have any pretenses at attempting to win. (Garza, BTW, is 0 for 4 against Wolf.)

Lineups:

Lurking in the bullpen:

Juan Perez pitched 1 inning (13 pitches) last night and 1 inning (20 pitches) Tuesday.
Jose Veras pitched 1 inning (16 pitches) last night.
Manny Parra pitched 1.2 innings (31 pitches) Tuesday.
Tim Dillard pitched 0.1 inning (15 pitches) Tuesday.
John Axford pitched 1 inning (19 pitches) Sunday.
Kameron Loe pitched 1.2 innings (21 pitches) Sunday.
Francisco Rodriguez pitched 1 inning (11 pitches) Sunday.