Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals Preview, Thursday 4/6, 12:45 CT

ST. LOUIS -- Check out what Gordon Wittenmyer wrote in the Sun-Times late Wednesday about the postponement of the game from Wednesday to Thursday:

"I should have got an apartment," catcher Miguel Montero joked when he learned Wednesday’s series finale of the season-opening series was postponed – and that the Cardinals compelled a Thursday afternoon makeup date.

The Cubs expressed a desire to go home Wednesday and play the makeup game during one of the two other trips into St. Louis this season.

"We have no say," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said, palms up, referring to the weather.

Left unsaid was the ample say the home team has in rescheduling early season games when off days such as Thursday match up.

Never mind that the rain held off for lengthy windows during the afternoon.

Well, about the rain: it rained hard, off and on, most of the afternoon. The game would have started late and had multiple delays. So the Cardinals did the right thing by calling it off. And it did make some sense to make it up right away, rather than have it stuffed into the schedule later in the season, especially since both teams have another off day next week.

I doubt it was "psychological warfare" on the part of the Cardinals, as Gordo wrote. But you never know.

Here are today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

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

Let's try this again.

Game preview: https://t.co/X8a4UXXMsA pic.twitter.com/wPPLuDfId0

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 6, 2017

Cardinals lineup:

Fowler CF, Diaz SS, Carpenter 1B, Molina C, Adams LF, Grichuk RF, Gyorko 3B, Wong 2B, Lynn P

John Lackey vs. Lance Lynn

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

John Lackey had a solid spring, and is pitching in this game (as opposed to being further down the rotation, as you might expect from 2016 performances by him and others) because of his record against the Cardinals last year (four starts, 2.03 ERA, 0.938 WHIP, 31 strikeouts in 26⅔ innings) and his good lifetime mark in Busch Stadium (2.02 ERA, 1.110 WHIP in 24 starts).

Lance Lynn is coming off Tommy John surgery. He did not pitch at all in 2016. Current Cubs are 17-for-70 (.243) against him with two home runs, both of those by Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo has hit Lynn well: 10-for-29 (.345) with three doubles and four walks, in addition to the homers.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago. It will also be carried by MLB Network (outside the Chicago and St. Louis markets).

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 Cardinals site Viva El Birdos. If you do go there to interact with Cardinals 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.

Discuss amongst yourselves.