Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati Reds Preview, Friday 8/10, 1:20 CT

The weather forecast for today isn't much better than last night's:

A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1pm, then a slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Breezy, with a north wind around 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

These conditions, and those from Thursday night, are more reminiscent of late September than early August; it seems as if we went from a very hot summer to a cool and wet fall in just one day. I wouldn't necessarily expect any delays today, but the way the rain fell off and on, blown in off Lake Michigan, Thursday night, who knows?

Cubs lineup:

DeJesus RF, Barney 2B, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Castro SS, Vitters 3B, Jackson CF, Castillo C, Germano P

Well! Josh Vitters starting against a righthander. Maybe they've figured it out, that this is the right thing to do.

Reds lineup was not available at the time I wrote this post. Check the BCB Twitter feed for the Reds lineup.

Today's Starting Pitchers

Justin Germano Cubs vs. Homer Bailey Reds 1-1 W-L 9-7 3.38 ERA 3.98 7 SO 100 2 BB 38 0 HR 19 vs. Cin -- vs. Cubs

Today's fun fact: Justin Germano actually used to pitch for the Reds. He was traded there in 2005 for Joe Randa. Now that's a name from the past. He made two appearances and one start for Cincinnati in 2006 before being traded to the Phillies for Rheal Cormier.

Enough late-90s flashbacks for you? Germano has one career start vs. the Reds, almost exactly five years ago, August 11, 2007 in Cincinnati. The only Reds player from that game still on the team is Brandon Phillips; the only other current Reds he has faced are Scott Rolen (0-for-3 and not likely to play today) and Ryan Ludwick (3-for-3). Germano's pitched pretty well. If he keeps this up, he'll likely find a spot on next year's team.

Homer Bailey has started twice against the Cubs this year; the Reds won both of those games and Bailey posted a 2.76 ERA in those starts, although he allowed three home runs to the Cubs May 3 in Cincinnati -- the game Carlos Marmol famously blew in the ninth inning before the Reds won in the 10th. Overall current Cubs are hitting .289 (22-for-76) against him with four home runs.

Today's game is on WGN.

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 Reds site Red Reporter. The usual caution is advised.

Today's first pitch thread will post at 1:20 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 2:20, 3:20 and 4:05 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.