Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers Preview, Wednesday 4/12, 7:05 CT

The Cubs will receive their World Series rings in a pregame ceremony this evening, completing the celebrations of last year's championship. The ring ceremony will be televised live by ABC7 Chicago beginning at 6:20 p.m. CT. If you're outside the Chicago area, it will be livestreamed on abc7chicago.com.

Then it's on to continuing the quest to have a similar celebration next year.

It will be chilly at the ballpark again tonight, but at least this ceremony (and game) won't be delayed by rain.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Schwarber LF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Zobrist 2B, Russell SS, Heyward RF, Contreras C, Lackey P, Jay CF

Dodgers lineup:

Toles LF, Seager SS, Forsythe 3B, Gonzalez 1B, Grandal C, Pederson CF, Utley 2B, Puig RF, McCarthy P

John Lackey vs. Brandon McCarthy

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

After he gets the jewelry he came here for, John Lackey will make his second start of the 2017 season. He had a rough first inning (which isn't uncommon for him), then settled down and had a decent first outing against the Cardinals last Thursday. The only time he pitched against the Dodgers last year was in the NLCS. That didn't go so well, but overall current Dodgers are hitting just .225 against Lackey (20-for-89) with no home runs.

Like his former teammate Brett Anderson (who'll pitch tomorrow for the Cubs), Brandon McCarthy has had recent seasons ruined by injury. In his first start this year, April 6 against the Padres, he threw six innings and allowed four hits and two runs. The last time he faced the Cubs was April 22, 2014, while he was with the Diamondbacks. I present that boxscore link just to show how much this Cubs team has changed in three years. Ben Zobrist (5-for-22, a double, a HR) is the only Cub who has more than three career AB vs. McCarthy.

Today's game is on ABC7 Chicago, their first broadcast of 2017. It will also be on MLB Network (outside the Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay area markets -- Bay Area is getting the Athletics/Royals game).

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 Dodgers site True Blue LA. If you do go there to interact with Dodgers 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 2017 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used during 2016. 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.

Get tickets to Cubs games from our partner Stubhub here.

Discuss amongst yourselves.