Cubs vs. White Sox Preview, Monday 7/8, 7:10 CT: Schedule, Interrupted

When the rained-out version of this game began on May 28, Welington Castillo hit a home run to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead. Edwin Jackson had retired seven of the eight hitters he had faced. Then it started pouring, so much so that lakes began to form in left field at the Cell.

So, the Cubs will take what would have been an off day and travel to the South Side to make up this rainout. The White Sox took a detour off their road trip; they got swept over the weekend at Tampa Bay, and will head to Detroit tomorrow. The Cubs beat the Sox the first time the two teams met this year, May 27 -- including that loss, the Sox are 10-27, by far the worst mark in the American League since that date.

Only once in the 16 previous seasons of interleague play has one team swept the entire season set between these two teams -- in 1998, when the Cubs took all three games (there were three games a year between the Cubs and Sox in 1997 and 1998 and six games a year from 1999-2012). If the Cubs win tonight, they'd sweep the four games scheduled this year.

One more note: Generally, in the previous 16 years of Cubs/White Sox matchups, at least one of the two teams, if not both, was in playoff contention. Neither is in contention this year. This will be the first time the teams have played with both of them being at least 10 games under .500. With a forecast of possible storms again and the game being a makeup squeezed onto an off-day Monday, it will be interesting to see how many people show up.

Finally, this is the second time this year that the Cubs will play three different teams on three consecutive days (Sunday, Pirates; today, White Sox; tomorrow, Angels). They also did this May 5 (Reds), May 6 (Rangers) and May 7 (Cardinals). Before this year, this unusual sequence hadn't happened for a Cubs team since 1960.

Cubs lineup:

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

Well, that's odd, considering it had been mentioned Sunday that Alfonso Soriano would be the DH. There would have been good reason for that:

#Cubs Alfonso Soriano is 8 for 17 (.471) w/ 2 HRs and 6 RBIs as DH this season. He's hit .384 in 29 career games at that spot. #WhiteSox

— STATS_MLB (@STATS_MLB) July 8, 2013

Instead, we get both catchers in the lineup. Hope neither gets hurt.

White Sox lineup:

De Aza LF, Beckham 2B, Rios RF, Dunn 1B, Keppinger DH, Gillaspie 3B, Ramirez SS, Phegley C, Tekotte CF

Today's Starting Pitchers

Matt Garza Cubs vs. Hector Santiago White Sox vs. Sox -- vs. Cubs

Matt Garza has a 0.90 ERA and matching 0.90 WHIP in his last four starts, with 28 strikeouts in 30 innings. He has not faced the White Sox since June 18, 2012, and current White Sox are hitting .293 against him (24-for-82). Much of that (7-for-15, three home runs) is from Paul Konerko, who's on the DL. The biggest question is: will this be Garza's final start in a Cubs uniform?

Sort of a lefthanded version of Carlos Villanueva, Hector Santiago has made 10 relief appearances and 11 starts this year. He made a relief appearance against the Cubs May 29 at Wrigley Field, allowing two runs in 1⅓ innings. He had a good start last week against the Orioles, but got crushed by the Indians a week ago Friday. Players currently on the Cubs roster are 0-for-7 against him. In short, who knows?

Today's game is on WCIU. WCIU games can be seen 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. It's also on CSN Chicago with the White Sox announcers.

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. The usual caution is advised.

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.