Today's Cubs/Cardinals game is the primary Fox-TV game and will be seen in 78% of the USA. The bad news is, you'll have to listen to Joe Buck & Tim McCarver, so get your audio sync devices ready so you can sync up Pat & Ron instead. The other two games today are Rangers/Twins and Mariners/Angels; that means the Cubs game will be seen everywhere except (in general terms) the Northwest, southern California, the Dakotas and Minnesota, Texas and Oklahoma, and small parts of Michigan and Ohio. The full coverage map is after the jump.
Even better, Fox has considerately scheduled this game so that it will likely end (barring extra innings) just before game one of the Stanley Cup Finals begins tonight. Go Blackhawks!
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Here's what I know about Adam Ottavino: he was the Cardinals' #1 pick in 2006 out of Northeastern University. He is righthanded. In two Triple-A seasons he's put up a 4.62 ERA, although he lowered his WHIP from 1.55 to 1.17 this year. He is making his major league debut today. Usually, that means doom to Cubs hitters. Let's make it different today.
Carlos Silva has three career relief appearances vs. St. Louis covering 4.1 innings, all in 2002 and 2003 when he was with the Phillies, so those are largely irrelevant to this year's Cardinals team. Cardinals backup catcher Jason LaRue is 3-for-8 vs. Silva with two HR, but the last of those plate appearances was in 2007 and LaRue isn't likely to be playing today (he's played in only 10 games this year). If Silva keeps the ball down as he has been, he should have good luck with this power-hitting team.
Today's game is Fox. Unlike last week, this time the Cubs game is the primary game, so it is going to 78% of the country. Here is the coverage map and here is the rest of the MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva El Birdos.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 3 pm CDT, and the overflows will post at 4:15, 5:15 and 6 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.