Today, on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we remember those who lost their lives. I don't want to dwell too long on this, but I do want to call your attention to this article about the Cubs in New York and how they have reacted to the anniversary, and also this article about the White Sox -- yes, the White Sox, don't turn up your nose, because they were to have been the visiting team in New York to play the Yankees on 9/11/2001; it's the story of what happened to them during and after the attacks. Well worth reading.

There will be a ceremony at Citi Field, televised by ESPN at 6:30 p.m. CT, prior to tonight's game, honoring first responders. Then let's play ball. Baseball is, after all, one of the things that has always united us.

Cubs lineup:

Castro SS, Campana CF, LaHair LF, Pena 1B, Colvin RF, LeMahieu 3B, Barney 2B, Hill C, Garza P

Hey, look! Playing time for DJ LeMahieu!

Mets lineup:

Reyes SS, Tejada 2B, Duda RF, Wright 3B, Pagan CF, Bay LF, Evans 1B, Paulino C, Batista P

Today's Starting Pitchers

Matt Garza Cubs vs. Miguel Batista Mets 8-10 W-L 4-2 3.52 ERA 3.92 171 SO 22 57 BB 26 12 HR 2 vs. NY -- vs. Cubs

Matt Garza has never faced the Mets, amazingly enough; the only current Met who has more than three at-bats against him is Jason Bay, from his time with the Red Sox: 5-for-20, a double, two triples. In seven starts since August 1, Garza has posted a 2.23 ERA and 1.285 WHIP; the Cubs are 5-2 in those starts and Garza personally is 4-2. He's having a strong finish, which is, I hope, a good sign for 2012.

Miguel Batista? Seriously? I didn't even know he had landed with the Mets until I saw the probable starters for this series. (He was released by the Cardinals on June 22 and signed with the Mets on July 4.) When he made his major league debut with the Pirates on April 11, 1992, one of his teammates was Dennis Lamp. Lamp will be 59 years old in a couple of weeks. Batista pitched for the Cubs -- not well -- in 1997, and then was traded for Henry Rodriguez, in probably the best deal Ed Lynch ever made as Cubs GM. Current Cubs are hitting just .155 against him (16-for-103) with no home runs. In short, who knows?

Today's game is on ESPN. Most of today's games are over, but 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 Mets site Amazin' Avenue.

Today's first pitch thread will be up at 7:05 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.