Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals Preview, Friday 7/29, 7:15 CT: Hello, Corey

Corey Patterson, wow.

Patterson was traded to the Baltimore Orioles from the Cubs on January 9, 2006, for two minor leaguers: Carlos Perez, who has been out of baseball since 2007, and Nate Spears, who for a time looked like he might become a decent utility IF for the Cubs; he's still bouncing around the Red Sox organization, playing for Triple-A Pawtucket at age 26.

Patterson, meanwhile, over the last five years has probably piled up enough frequent-flyer miles to be some airline's super-platinum flyer; his major league stops are Baltimore, Cincinnati, Washington, Milwaukee, Baltimore again, and Toronto, before his acquisition by the Cardinals this week. But he's also spent time in the following minor league cities: Louisville, Syracuse, Nashville and Dunedin -- looks pretty much like an all-expenses-paid tour of the Eastern Seaboard.

You all know Corey's history with the Cubs. He has not faced a Cubs team since September 15, 2009, when he was with the Brewers; he pinch-hit for Mike Cameron and grounded out in a 13-7 Cubs win.

If it's possible, he's even worse than ever now. He hit .252/.287/.378 with only 15 walks in 341 plate appearances for the Blue Jays; the .665 OPS is almost 30 points below his already-bad .694 career OPS.

And the Cardinals gave him uniform No. 44. Wow again. And wait till you see where he's hitting tonight.

Cubs lineup:

Castro SS, Barney 2B, Ramirez 3B, Peña 1B, Byrd CF, Soto C, Soriano LF, Colvin RF, Garza P

Castro leading off. Good -- it's his best batting order position. He is hitting .369/.398/.524 in 88 plate appearances in the leadoff spot.

Cardinals lineup:

Patterson RF, Jay CF, Pujols 1B, Holliday LF, Freese 3B, Schumaker 2B, Molina C, Descalso SS, Jackson P

Leading off? Playing right field? Well, that could be good news for the Cubs tonight.

Today's Starting Pitchers

Matt Garza Cubs vs. Edwin Jackson Cardinals 4-7 W-L 7-7 3.72 ERA 3.92 119 SO 97 42 BB 39 8 HR 8 vs. StL -- vs. Cubs

One of Matt Garza's four wins this year was against the Cardinals, on May 11 at Wrigley Field. He threw five good innings and the Cubs scored 11 runs. Yes, that was this year. Oddly, the one current Cardinal who hits him well is... Corey Patterson (6-for-10, a double, a HR).

Edwin Jackson is making his Cardinals debut. He pitched against the Cubs earlier this month when he was with the White Sox, on July 1 at Wrigley Field. When he left the game for a PH, the Cubs were leading 4-2. The Cubs bullpen blew that lead. Yes, that's this year, too, in a nutshell. Aramis Ramirez homered off Jackson that day; Marlon Byrd and Alfonso Soriano have also homered off Jackson in his career.

Today's game is on WGN and FSN Midwest. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva el Birdos.

Today's first pitch thread will be up at 7:15 p.m. CDT and the overflow threads will post at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.