Chicago Cubs vs. Miami Marlins preview, Thursday 6/22, 6:10 CT

Here's the 40-man roster move made to make room for Mark Zagunis, who was added earlier today:

#Cubs DFA Zac Rosscup to make room on 40-man roster for Mark Zagunis, who will make debut tonight vs Marlins

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) June 22, 2017

Here's an interesting note on the Cubs offense this year:

The Cubs offense has the lowest team BABIP (.275) in the last 10 years besides the 2013 Cubs and the 2010 Blue Jays.

— Cooper (@RushingBaseball) June 22, 2017

The 2013 Cubs, as you know, weren't very good (96 losses). The 2010 Blue Jays went 85-77.

Last year's Cubs had a team BABIP of .302, which was only in the middle of the pack in MLB (13th). However, .275 would have been dead last.

You'd think this would revert to the mean eventually. The best team in BABIP this year is the Rockies (.332), so it's no surprise that they are winning.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Rizzo 1B, Bryant 3B, Contreras C, Russell SS, Happ LF, Almora CF, Baez 2B, Arrieta P, Zagunis RF

Here is tonight's #Cubs lineup to open an 11-game road trip.

Game preview: https://t.co/owZHnHo3Gg pic.twitter.com/pJNISSYHQ7

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 22, 2017

Mark Zagunis is making his major-league debut.

Marlins lineup:

Gordon 2B, Stanton RF, Yelich CF, Ozuna LF, Bour 1B, Realmuto C, Dietrich 3B, Riddle SS, Locke P

Jake Arrieta vs. Jeff Locke

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Jake Arrieta, who are you?

Are you the guy who put together four straight pretty good (or better) starts, six innings in each, with an ERA of 2.63 and 27 strikeouts in 24 innings?

Or are you the guy who couldn't finish the fifth inning in either of his last two outings, allowing five walks and six runs in nine total innings?

One of those good starts was June 6 at Wrigley Field against the Marlins. Jake allowed just two hits (and three walks) in six innings against Miami. Hopefully he can do the same tonight.

Also hopefully, the Cubs can do what they did to Jeff Locke that night, get him out of the game after he threw 89 pitches in 4⅔ innings. Anthony Rizzo homered off Locke in that game, who hasn't been much better in two starts since then (9⅓ total innings, 13 hits, six runs).

The Cubs won 10-2 on June 6. I'll take another one of those, please.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Chicago and Miami markets).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

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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.