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Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati Reds Preview, Sunday 8/12, 1:20 CT

Aroldis Chapman (not pictured) of the Cincinnati Reds pitches throws 102 mph in the ninth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Chicago Cubs 4-2. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)
Aroldis Chapman (not pictured) of the Cincinnati Reds pitches throws 102 mph in the ninth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Chicago Cubs 4-2. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)

Dale and Starlin had a little talk about Starlin's bad day Friday:

"It went well," Sveum said. "He was, I don’t know if ‘remorseful’ is the right word, but he knew he made a big mistake [on the basepaths in Friday’s 10-8 loss to the Reds]."

The mistake came when Castro tried to steal second, lost sight of a single to right field by Josh Vitters and was thrown out at third in the sixth inning Friday against the Cincinnati Reds. The Cubs trailed 8-3 at the time.

Gordon Wittenmyer's article goes on to quote Sveum:

"There’s that fine line [of still being only 22], but even he admits that [being young] is no excuse for anything that went on."

Exactly right. Starlin Castro is still the youngest Cub, even with all the callups, but he has now played in 395 major-league games. He should know better. He needs to know better. Castro has all the talent in the world. Now he needs to keep his head in the game. It wouldn't hurt to give him a day off now and then, too.

Cubs lineup:

DeJesus RF, Barney 2B, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Castro SS, Valbuena 3B, Jackson CF, Clevenger C, Raley P

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
Brooks Raley
Brooks Raley
Cubs
vs. Johnny Cueto
Johnny Cueto
Reds
0-1 W-L 14-6
15.75 ERA 2.58
4 SO 124
3 BB 35
1 HR 8
vs. Cin -- vs. Cubs

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Brooks Raley 0-1 1 1 0 0 0 0 4.0 8 7 7 1 3 4 15.75 2.75


W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2012 - Johnny Cueto 14-6 23 23 2 0 0 0 153.2 148 48 44 8 35 124 2.58 1.19

Brooks Raley is making his second major-league start. In his first start, he did all right until he gave up a couple of baserunners; then he seemed to lose his focus. Twice he was within an out of getting out of innings unscathed, but couldn't close the deal. If he can do that, even with stuff that isn't what some other pitchers have, he can be successful at this level.

Johnny Cueto is having another fine year; at 26 he's become one of the top starters in the National League. On April 22 at Wrigley Field he threw 6⅓ solid innings against the Cubs. Current Cubs, though, are hitting .293 against him (24-for-82), and Alfonso Soriano has homered three times off him. Perhaps this isn't quite at the top of the "doomed" meter.

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. Also please note: due to some under-the-hood changes, the sidebar box with the game thread links is no longer available. It seems you've found them with no problems, but if you haven't been able to find the overflow threads, click the "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" link under "Sections" on the left sidebar. They're all in there.

Discuss amongst yourselves.