You'll note the 90% chance of rain mentioned in the box above. Based on this NWS radar loop, it doesn't look too good. This is the last meeting of the year between the Pirates and Cubs and they have no common off days the rest of the season. Thus, if they can't play today, they'd hold this game till the end of the season and only play it if it had postseason implications.

Today's Starting Pitchers

J. Marquis Cubs vs. Z. Duke Pirates 8-7 W-L 4-12 4.76 ERA 5.29 71 SO 72 52 BB 42 14 HR 19 vs. Pit -- vs. Cubs

Zach Duke is 0-2 with a 5.91 ERA vs. the Cubs this year in four starts and that includes this April 9 game in which he gave up only 1 run in 7 innings and the Cubs eventually won in 15. In the other three games he's pitched vs. the Cubs this year, his ERA is 8.16. D-Lee (.313), A-Ram (.344), Alfonso Soriano (.571) and Reed Johnson (.500) all have monstrously good BA's vs. Duke. Hit him early, hard and often.

Jason Marquis has also started four times vs. Pittsburgh this year and is 2-1, 3.47, and that includes a decent outing in the August 1 loss at Wrigley Field when he gave up 3 runs in 6 innings and Jeff Karstens shut the Cubs down. The only Pirate he really has to watch out for is Jason Michaels, who in a small-sample-size six AB has four hits including a HR that produced all three runs on August 1.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago -- no Pittsburgh TV, so EI viewers will see Len & Bob. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Once again, a reminder that you can find the overflow comment threads, including the first pitch thread, on the right sidebar of both the front page and any interior page in the box headed "RECENT STORIES IN GAME THREADS". Today's first pitch thread posts at 11:30 am CT, and the overflow comment threads will post at 12:30, 1:30 and 2:15 pm CT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.