Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves preview, Friday 9/1, 1:20 CT

The Cubs have won five or more consecutive games three times this year: five straight from June 2-6, six in a row from July 14-19, and five in a row from August 18-23.

They can make that four times with a win this afternoon over the Braves.

One note: It appears Carl Edwards Jr. has righted the ship:

Keep up the good work, CJ.

The big news of the morning has been covered in other articles previously, so let’s get right to this afternoon’s game information.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Zobrist 2B, Schwarber LF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Happ CF, Avila C, Heyward RF, Baez SS, Lackey P

Braves lineup:

Inciarte CF, Albies 2B, Freeman 1B, Kemp LF, Markakis RF, Suzuki C, Ruiz 3B, Swanson SS, Foltynewicz P

John Lackey vs. Mike Foltynewicz

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

John Lackey threw five good innings against the Braves July 18 in Atlanta.

I’m not really sure what else to say about him. At times he’s looked really dominant this year. He had a similar game going Sunday in Philadelphia before an error opened the door for a big inning for the Phillies. It’s said that Lackey can let things like this bother him. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is he needs to fix that.

Hoping for a solid performance from Lackey this afternoon.

Mike Foltynewicz had a pretty good first half, but since the All-Star break he’s been really bad: 7.05 ERA, 1.836 WHIP in nine starts. Opposing hitters are batting .312/.401/.487 against him in that span, which is ... not good.

He has not faced the Cubs this year. In fact, the last start he made vs. the Cubs was more than two years ago, August 20, 2015 at Wrigley Field, and Cubs hitters pounded him: eight hits and seven runs in 4⅔ innings, including a home run by Anthony Rizzo.

Today's game is on WGN. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Chicago and Atlanta 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 Braves site Talking Chop. If you do go there to interact with Braves 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.