Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Tuesday 6/17, 7:05 CT

The Cubs welcome their closest NL Central pursuer to Wrigley Field.

There are storms possible this evening in Chicago, so here’s the local radar for you to keep handy.

Tuesday notes…

• DIVISIONAL PLAY — AND NOT: The Cubs tonight will begin a stretch of 40 games, nearly one quarter of the entire season, in which they will play: Six games vs. the Brewers (three home, 3 road); seven games vs. the Cardinals (three home, four road); and 27 games vs. American League teams (15 home, 12 road). The series vs. the AL teams, all three games, will be, in order: Mariners (home), Astros (road), Guardians (home), Twins (road), Yankees (road), Red Sox (home), Royals (home), White Sox (road) and Orioles (home). The Cubs will not see an NL opponent other than the Brewers or Cardinals until Aug. 4, when they will host the Reds — and then they will play three more games vs. the Cardinals, at St. Louis! (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE BUSCH LEAGUE: Michael Busch, last 14 games since May 30: .311/.392/.711 (14-for-45) with two doubles, two triples, four home runs, 10 RBI, six walks and seven runs scored.
• THE ZERO SQUAD: Chris Flexen and Drew Pomeranz have combined for 36⅔ innings with a 0.00 ERA for the Cubs this year — Pomeranz allowed one unearned run in the extra-inning loss to the Pirates Friday.
• THIS DAY IN CUBS HISTORY: After Bert Humphries allowed three straight hits and a run to the Dodgers in the first inning, Zip Zabel relieved him and pitched the next 18⅓ innings in relief. It happened 110 years ago today, June 17, 1915 at West Side Grounds. The Cubs won the game 4-3 on a throwing error in the bottom of the 19th inning. Zabel’s is the longest relief appearance in MLB history.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Brewers lineup:

Ben Brown, RHP vs. Chad Patrick. RHP

By now, you know the Ben Brown story: Sometimes lights-out. Sometimes gets hit hard. There doesn’t seem to be much in-between for the Cubs righthander.

One of those lights-out games happened May 2 in Milwaukee, where Brown threw six shutout inning against the Brewers, allowing four hits.

Another one of those, please.

Chad Patrick was the Diamondbacks’ fourth-round pick in 2021 out of Purdue Northwest (Hammond). He’s a local guy (Crown Point, Indiana). He was traded to the A’s in 2023 for Jace Peterson and the A’s sent him to the Brewers last November for Abraham Toro.

This is his rookie year in MLB (15 appearances, 14 starts) and the results have been pretty good (3.25 ERA, 1.3 bWAR). He got hit pretty hard in his last start, June 11 vs. the Braves (five runs in five innings).

He’s never faced the Cubs or anyone on their active roster.

Baseball Savant

Baseball Savant

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. If you do go there to interact with Brewers fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2025 Game Thread procedure will be identical to last year’s.

You’ll find the game preview posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.