Here's the deal. We've had far too much controversy this weekend. Those things aren't going away, but I'm thinking that for at least one day -- a Sunday afternoon -- maybe we could all just put that aside and enjoy baseball for its own sake.

The Cubs played pretty well yesterday. They have a chance to win a series from a good team for the first time in... well, a while. What's wrong with that? For a day, at least, put all the turmoil away and just root for the Cubs to win.

Cubs lineup:

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

Braves lineup:

Bourn CF, Prado 3B, McCann C, Uggla 2B, Freeman 1B, Heyward RF, Gonzalez SS, Constanza LF, Beachy P

Today's Starting Pitchers

Matt Garza Cubs vs. Brandon Beachy Braves 5-9 W-L 5-2 3.81 ERA 3.43 138 SO 105 48 BB 31 11 HR 14 vs. Atl -- vs. Cubs

Matt Garza has never faced the Braves, not even in interleague play. He has faced a handful of current Braves, who have hit .255 (12-for-47) against him with no home runs. Michael Bourn's done the best -- 4-for-11.

Brandon Beachy has never faced the Cubs or anyone on the current roster. You know what usually happens when the Cubs face a pitcher like that. Beachy has been quite good this year, too.

Today's game is on WGN and FSN South. 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 Braves site Talking Chop.

Today's first pitch thread will be up at 12:35 p.m. CDT and the overflow threads will post at 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm and 3:15 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.