Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals preview, Sunday 8/6, 1:20 CT

You will need this again today:

The good news is that the rain expected today is likely to be lighter and more scattered than it was Thursday, when the game vs. the Diamondbacks was delayed three times by heavy showers and storms. They should be able to get this one in, hopefully with no delays. The forecast is for just a 40 percent chance of rain.

As was the case with the game vs. the D-backs, this is the last time the Cubs and Nats will meet during the regular season, so they’ll do whatever they can to get this one in.

Also, not unexpectedly:

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

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

Nationals lineup:

Goodwin CF, Kendrick LF, Harper RF, Zimmerman 1B, Murphy 2B, Rendon 3B, Wieters C, Difo SS, Fedde P

Jon Lester vs. Erick Fedde

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Mitchell-USA Today Sports

Jon Lester had a good outing against the Nationals June 29 in Washington, throwing six innings and allowing just one run. In his last start, as you likely recall, he hit his first big-league homer, but didn’t get out of the fifth inning due to a high pitch count as the Diamondbacks kept fouling off pitches.

Even so, since the All-Star break Jon has a 2.77 ERA and 0.885 WHIP in four starts (26 innings), much more in line with his 2016 season. Hopefully, he can keep this up the rest of the year.

Erick Fedde was the Nats’ top pitching prospect coming into this season. He was their No. 1 pick (18th overall) in 2014 and made his major-league debut July 30 against the Rockies. It did not go well: 10 hits and seven runs in four innings. And that can’t be blamed on Coors Field, since that game was in Washington.

Fedde and Bryce Harper went to the same high school in Las Vegas and were teammates there for two years. Obviously, Fedde has never faced the Cubs. Ian Happ faced him last year in the Carolina League and singled off him — just shows you how quickly good prospects can make the big leagues.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago. It’s also on TBS (outside the Chicago and Washington 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.

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Discuss amongst yourselves.