Corbin Burnes Leads Diamondbacks into Wrigley Field to Face Cubs

The Arizona Diamondbacks begin the second leg of their six game road trip Friday afternoon with a game at Wrigley Field against the Cubs. First pitch is 11:20 A.M. MST, 1:20 P.M. CST. The two teams split a four game series at Chase Field March 27-March 30.

The D-backs are coming off a three game sweep of the Miami Marlins, while the Cubs dropped two of three to the Padres. Chicago leads the NL Central over the Milwaukee Brewers by one game with a 12-9 record. Despite a 13-7 record, the D-backs sit in fourth place in the NL West, three games back of the first place Padres

While it's still very early in the season, winning the series is critical as it would give the D-backs a better head to head record, which is the first tie-breaker in the event of the two teams finishing with the same record in the Wild Card standings.

RHP Corbin Burnes, 0-1, 5.28 ERA, 5.87 FIP in 15.1 IP. Burnes is making his fourth start for the Diamondbacks. He pitched a Quality Start against the Brewers April 12, going six innings and allowing three earned runs on four hits, two walks, and three strikeouts. He allowed one homer in the D-backs come-from-behind victory.

While the reduction in walks was a welcome sign, the lack of strikeouts and swing and miss are a sign he's still not fully dialed in. Teams have been stacking left hand batters against him in the early going. In years past he saw roughly a 50/50 split in plate appearances by left and right hand batters. But so far just 62% of his PA against have been versus left-hand batters.

Ironically however, Burnes has a large reverse split in a small sample. In 26 PA right-hand batters have gone 9-for-26, .360 with two homers. Left-hand batters are just 6-for-31, .194 with one homer. Eight of his nine walks issues have come versus left hand batters.

RHP Colin Rea, 0-0, 1.00 ERA, 1.77 FIP in 9 IP. Rea spent the previous two seasons with the Brewers, making 49 starts and nine relief appearances, going 18-12 with a 4.40 ERA and 4.87 FIP. The Brewers declined his 2025 option, making him a free agent. He signed a deal with the Cubs in January for one year and a player option for 2026.

Beginning the year in the bullpen, Rea has been pressed back into a starting role due to Justin Steele requiring season ending elbow surgery. Ray had thrown three scoreless relief outing before making a start against the Dodgers on April 13. He went 3.2 innings, allowing just one run on four hits, and a walk, striking out five. He threw 68 pitches, and is close to being stretched back out to a starter's workload. Expect the Cubs to allow him to approach the 80 pitch mark.