Cubs vs. Giants Preview, Wednesday 8/20, 7:05 CT

I'm pretty tired after last night's marathon at Wrigley, and I don't have much in the way of preview material for tonight. So, though I already mentioned this in the comments to another post, I thought I'd pass along this information received from the Cubs this afternoon:

The Chicago Cubs are inviting ticket holders from the Tuesday, August 19, 7:05 p.m. game to redeem their tickets for a complimentary weeknight game at Wrigley Field during the remainder of the 2014 season. To redeem tickets, fans must present the Tuesday, August 19 game ticket at the Wrigley Field Ticket Office. Tickets may be redeemed for the best comparable seats and are subject to availability.

"We have great respect for our fans and don't take their loyalty for granted. We'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to our fans who were inconvenienced by last night's lengthy delay and hope this gesture will provide another opportunity to enjoy a great game at Wrigley Field," said Colin Faulkner, vice president, Sales and Partnerships.

Below are the eligible games for the August 19 ticket redemption offer*.

Wednesday, August 20
Thursday, August 21
Tuesday, September 2
Wednesday, September 3
Monday, September 15
Tuesday, September 16
Wednesday, September 17
Thursday, September 18
Monday, September 22
Tuesday, September 23
Wednesday, September 24

Tickets cannot be refunded for cash value. For further questions, please contact the Chicago Cubs at 773-388-8270.

*Ticket redemption offer for seating bowl and Budweiser Bleachers only

You know, I've been very critical in the past about Cubs ticketing policies, especially regarding rainouts. This game wasn't even a rainout and they're offering free tickets to, potentially, 31,000+ ticket-holders. That's an excellent gesture on the Cubs' part and, though I probably won't do it myself (as I already have a ticket for all remaining games), I want to say here and now: Good for you, Cubs. Well done. (I assume the line about "seating bowl and bleachers only" is designed to exclude suite tickets, which is reasonable.)

Cubs lineup:

Coghlan LF, Baez 2B, Rizzo 1B, Castro SS, Valbuena 3B, Sweeney RF, Alcantara CF, Baker C, Jackson P

Giants lineup:

Pagan CF, Pence RF, Sandoval 3B, Morse LF, Panik 2B, Ishikawa 1B, Susac C, Crawford SS, Peavy P

Today's Starting Pitchers

Edwin Jackson Cubs vs. Jake Peavy Giants vs. SF -- vs. Cubs

Oh, man, Edwin Jackson. Do I have to? Oh, all right. Jackson has started 56 games over the last two seasons. He has the highest ERA of any pitcher who's started that many games over that span by more than half a run... 5.31 to 4.72 (Edinson Volquez). Won-lost records don't mean that much anymore for starting pitchers, but Edwin is 14-31 personally over the last two years and the Cubs are 18-38 in those 56 starts. That's a .321 winning percentage, and over the last two years, thus, the Cubs are 103-128 in games Edwin has not started. That's a .446 winning percentage, more than 100 points higher.

Edwin Jackson is the worst starting pitcher in baseball and it's not close. He pitches at an agonizingly slow pace. He doesn't seem to have any sort of game plan when he goes to the mound.

But hey, maybe this will be one of the 32 percent of games the Cubs win when he starts. (Not holding my breath waiting.)

Jake Peavy had a pretty good outing against the Cubs June 30, when he was still a member of the Red Sox. That was the night Jake Arrieta took a no-hitter into the eighth inning. Peavy's made four starts for the Giants and the reuslts range from mediocre to very good; he's got a 3.86 ERA in those four starts and has allowed just one home run in 25⅔ innings.

Today's game is on WCIU. WCIU games can also 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; South Bend, WMYS 69; Rockford, WTVO 17.2; Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City-Dubuque KCRG 9.2.

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 Giants site McCovey Chronicles.

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.