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If you're wondering why you're reading this now instead of later this afternoon, there's a pretty good chance of thunderstorms in the St. Louis area in the evening, so the Cardinals moved the game up to midafternoon in order to avoid rain delay or postponement.
Now that the division race has been decided, Dale Sveum could have put, say, Logan Watkins and J.C. Boscan in the starting lineup (especially Boscan, after the injury to Dioner Navarro Friday night):
Cubs lineup:
Castro SS, Lake LF, Rizzo 1B, Navarro C, Schierholtz RF, Murphy 3B, Bogusevic CF, Barney 2B, Jackson P
But no. Same old lineup. I truly hope today and tomorrow are the end of Dale Sveum's tenure as Cubs manager. Meanwhile, the Cardinals have been taking their time posting a lineup for this game; it wasn't available at posting time. Hope they remembered the time change. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Cardinals lineup.
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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Way past trying to figure out Edwin Jackson. He had one of his better starts this year against the Cardinals (July 11 at Wrigley Field), but his three other outings against them were mediocre to poor. If he posts the loss today, he will become only the second Cubs pitcher since 1977 to record 18 defeats (Steve Trachsel, 1999, the other). Wait till next year, I guess.
The Cardinals flip-flopped Adam Wainwright and Joe Kelly in their rotation -- this, so Wainwright could start Game 1 of their Division Series next Thursday. I'll bet he pitches more than one inning today, though. In Wainwright's last start against the Cubs, August 18 at Wrigley Field, he threw seven innings and allowed five hits and one run with 11 strikeouts. Doomed, we are, clearly.
Today's game is on WGN.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva el Birdos.
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.