Cubs vs. White Sox Preview, Tuesday 5/28, 7:10 CT: Another Night On The South Side

Monday night's game was the Cubs' second-fastest of the season, two hours and 25 minutes, which allowed me to get home in time to see the end of the Blackhawks game. There's no hockey tonight -- Game 7 of the Hawks series is tomorrow -- but somehow, I don't think we'll be as lucky for tonight's contest. 23 of the Cubs' 50 games have gone three hours or longer; the White Sox, surprisingly, have had fewer: 19 of 49.

More fun with numbers: the Cubs' big win last night put their run differential at -5, but they are still 10 games under .500. The White Sox are now at -18, but just one game under. At some point, both of those will even out -- clearly, again, the Cubs' record is largely due to ineffective bullpen work.

Here are a couple more interesting notes about Monday night's win:

Jeff Samardzija is the first NL pitcher to throw CG SHO vs #WhiteSox in their home park since Hod Eller 10/6/1919 in Game 5 of 1919 WS

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) May 28, 2013

Samardzija's was the first CG SHO by a #Cubs pitcher against the #WhiteSox since Three Finger Brown - Game 4 of 1906 World Series 10/12/1906

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) May 28, 2013

Cubs lineup:

Borbon CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Hairston RF, Castillo C, Ransom 3B, Navarro DH, Barney 2B

Scott Hairston gets another chance.

White Sox lineup:

De Aza CF, Ramirez SS, Rios RF, Dunn DH, Konerko 1B, Viciedo LF, Gillaspie 3B, Greene 2B, Flowers C

Today's Starting Pitchers

Edwin Jackson Cubs vs. Chris Sale White Sox vs. Sox -- vs. Cubs

The itinerant Edwin Jackson last faced the White Sox in 2009, when he was with the Tigers. Current members of the White Sox are 10-for-63 (.159) against him with two home runs, both by Alex Rios. In fact, Rios accounts for nearly half (30) of those 63 at-bats. You figure Jackson's due for a good outing. Maybe the familiar surroundings will help.

Chris Sale's only career appearances against the Cubs were two relief outings in 2011. Current Cubs are 1-for-10 (a single by Luis Valbuena) against him. In short, we are headed to certain doom.

Today's game is on WCIU. It's also on CSN Chicago with the Sox announcers. This is the only game of the series NOT on WGN. The CSN broadcast should be available via MLB Extra Innings, for those of you who live outside the Chicago market. WCIU games are also generally available on the following channels: Springfield/Decatur/Champaign WCIX 49.2, Peoria WAOE 59.1, Des Moines WHO 13.2, Quad Cities (Davenport/Moline) WQAD 8.2 or 8.3, Ft. Wayne WANE 15.2 and South Bend, WMYS, 69.

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 White Sox site South Side Sox. Be careful over there, though.

Here's the scoop on game threads for 2013. You'll find the game preview -- like this one -- posting as the first link in the StoryStream™, which will then contain all the overflow threads and the recap. The recap will also be on the front page as a separate post; once I post a game recap, the stream for each game will be retitled "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

In general, game previews will post two hours before game time. Exception: for day games after night games, that will usually be 90 minutes.

You will also be able to find the First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in this StoryStream™. As I've done for each regular-season game for several years now, we'll have the First Pitch thread at five minutes before game time (moved up from actual game time per your requests), then an overflow one hour, two hours and 2:45 after game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.