Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants Preview, Tuesday 5/23, 6:05 CT

You're probably getting as tired of seeing this as I'm getting tired of posting it:

Again, with this being the only visit of the Giants to Wrigley and not many feasible makeup dates, they will likely do whatever they can to get this one in.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

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

Here is tonight's #Cubs starting lineup against the #SFGiants.

Game preview: https://t.co/MOyTll1qn5 pic.twitter.com/yLVk5hp7ku

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 23, 2017

Giants lineup:

Panik 2B, Arroyo 3B, Belt 1B, Posey C, Ruggiano RF, Crawford SS, Nunez LF, Hernandez CF, Cueto P

Jon Lester vs. Johnny Cueto

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The last time these pitchers matched up was Game 1 of last year's NLDS. Both threw eight innings. Cueto was dominant, striking out eight, but Javier Baez's homer was the difference in the 1-0 Cubs win. Lester struck out five and didn't walk anyone.

You all know the story of how Joe Maddon and the Cubs didn't want to face Cueto again. Now they will under very different circumstances. Both teams are struggling, and Cueto doesn't have overall good numbers. He has made some good starts this year, but has also allowed eight home runs in nine starts, and allowed at least four runs in four of his nine outings.

Lester has also struggled at times this year. He has a 4.89 ERA and 1.543 WHIP over his last six starts. However, he's been much better at Wrigley (2.03 ERA, 1.000 WHIP, five starts) than on the road (5.73 ERA, 1.909 WHIP, four starts). So that's good. Cueto has been marginally worse away from San Francisco (4.94 ERA on road, 4.04 ERA at home).

Today's game is on CSN Chicago. It’s also on ESPN (outside the Chicago and San Francisco markets). The earlier-than-usual starting time was requested by ESPN.

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. If you do go there to interact with Giants 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.