Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets Preview, Saturday 7/2, 6:15 CT

All right, Cubs. Enough of losing to the Mets.

Also, this is a national Fox broadcast between the Cubs and Mets. My over/under on the time of mention of 1969 or black cats: 6:30 p.m. CT.

Here are today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Zobrist 2B, Heyward CF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Contreras LF, Montero C, Russell SS, Coghlan RF, Arrieta P

Jake tonight.

Game preview: https://t.co/RRH0b1E85H #LetsGo pic.twitter.com/AQZ9rHMiNx

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 2, 2016

Mets lineup:

Nimmo LF, Walker 2B, Cespedes CF, Loney 1B, Cabrera SS, Flores 3B, De Aza RF, d'Arnaud C, Colon P

This is quite the pitching mismatch, in this sense: Jake Arrieta might be in the best physical shape of anyone in baseball. Bartolo Colon... isn't. Still, Colon has pitched well, so in that sense, this game won't be easy.

Jake had a 3.54 ERA and 1.357 WHIP in June. For most pitchers, that would be an acceptable month. By Jake's standards over the last year, that's pretty bad. Hopefully he gets his command back and starts dominating again. Jake faced the Mets twice in the regular season in 2015 and threw 16 innings, allowing eight hits, two walks and two runs, with 17 strikeouts. That's the kind of pitching we'd like to see tonight.

Bartolo Colon is pretty amazing. You wouldn't think a 43-year-old man with his physique (he's listed at 5-11, 285) could play a professional sport, but not only is he doing it, he's having a good year. He's been consistent all season, and has a 1.80 ERA and 1.075 WHIP over his last seven starts. Last year against the Cubs, July 1 at Citi Field, he threw seven shutout innings in a game the Cubs won in extras.

He even hit his first career home run this year, becoming the oldest player in major-league history to hit his first home run. (We could do without a repeat of that, thankyouverymuch.)

Today's game is on Fox. Here's the coverage map. This is Fox's primary game. Announcers: Joe Buck and John Smoltz. Reminder: if the game is not on in your market, you can still watch it if you subscribe to MLB.tv or MLB Extra Innings.

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 Mets site Amazin' Avenue. If you do go there to interact with Mets fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2016 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used at the end of 2015. Here's how it works.

You'll find the game preview posted separately on the front page, two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream™ containing the preview will also post on the front page. The First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads will be published in that stream, as well as the recap. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post, and at the time I write the recap I will rename the stream "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread, all the overflow threads and recap 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 the game's StoryStream™ as noted above.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at one hour, two hours and 2:45 after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.