Cubs vs. Marlins Preview, Saturday 6/7, 3:05 CT

The Cubs won five straight games once in 2013, and it's been more than a calendar year since that happened (May 26-31 against the White Sox and Diamondbacks). Winning's been rare enough around here the last three years, so it would be nice to do that.

Beyond that there isn't a whole lot of Cubs news this afternoon after a busy week, so I thought I'd share with you a couple of links from SBN college blogs that cover two of the players the Cubs selected on the first two days of the draft.

Second-round pick Jake Stinnett, via Testudo Times (U of Maryland).

Ninth-round pick James Farris, via AZ Desert Swarm (U of Arizona).

Now, on to today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Bonifacio CF, Lake LF, Rizzo 1B, Castro SS, Ruggiano RF, Olt 3B, Barney 2B, Whiteside C, Samardzija P

All RH hitters vs. the lefty Randy Wolf (except, of course, for Anthony Rizzo, who is hot right now: .364/.432/.788 over his last nine games (12-for-33, four home runs).

The Marlins lineup was not available at the time I wrote this post. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Marlins lineup.

Today's Starting Pitchers

Jeff Samardzija Cubs vs. Randy Wolf Marlins vs. Mia -- vs. Cubs

Jeff Samardzija is coming off the worst start of his career. Bet you never thought you'd see those words, after his great start to the season. Overall, his numbers are still quite good. Current Marlins are a small-sample-size 11-for-49 against him with two home runs. Surprisingly, neither of those homers was hit by Giancarlo Stanton (the two: Casey McGehee and Adeiny Hechavarria). I'd expect Shark to come back strong from his horrific outing last Sunday.

The last time the Cubs saw Randy Wolf, he was pitching for the Mariners in spring training. That was the night Javier Baez hit a home run off him that hit the scoreboard in Peoria, likely a 450-foot blast. The Mariners released him 12 days later, and he caught on with the Marlins, for whom he's been quite good in two relief appearances and two starts (3.38 ERA, just three walks in 16 innings). He almost always pitches well against the Cubs; in his last two starts against them (both in 2012 for the Brewers), covering 12⅔ innings, he allowed no earned runs.

It's Randy Wolf. He might be almost 38, but we're probably doomed.

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 Marlins site FishStripes.

For 2014, we are going to have the same game-thread routine as 2013. Here's how it works.

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.