Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Pirates preview, Tuesday 9/5, 6:05 CT

You might need this tonight, as there’s a slight chance of showers in the Pittsburgh area:

Notes for today!

Glad they got that out of their system: Monday’s loss was the worst shutout loss to the Pirates in Pittsburgh since a 15-0 drubbing on August 30, 1929. You’ll be glad to know that after that defeat, that Cubs team went on to win four in a row, seven of eight and nine of 11, and scored 10+ runs in three of their next four games, and of course, won the N.L. pennant that year with a 98-54 record.

Still among the best: Despite the loss, the Cubs are 32-17 (.653) since the All-Star break, the third-best mark in baseball behind the Cleveland Indians (34-16, .680) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (31-16/.667).

Feel better now?

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Jay LF, Almora CF, Bryant 3B, Zobrist RF, Happ 2B, Baez SS, Caratini 1B, Rivera C, Hendricks P

Anthony Rizzo gets the day off. In fact, all the LH hitters do — this is an all-RH lineup (except for Jon Jay) vs. Pirates lefthander Steven Brault.

Pirates lineup:

Marte LF, Moroff 2B, McCutchen CF, Bell 1B, Freese 3B, Luplow RF, Diaz C, Mercer SS, Brault P

Kyle Hendricks vs. Steven Brault

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Hendricks since returning from the DL: eight starts, 2.31 ERA, 1.286 WHIP. Those numbers are not too far off what he posted for all of 2016. His velocity seems as if it’s upticking each time he goes out, and perhaps the extra day of rest with the Cubs currently using a six-man rotation will help that.

Kyle threw six shutout innings against the Pirates in PNC Park back on April 25. A repeat of that would be most welcome.

Steven Brault made seven starts for the Pirates last year, but this will be his first 2017 start after six relief appearances. Two of those relief outings were against the Cubs last week at Wrigley Field. In three innings he allowed seven runs (four earned). He made one start and one relief appearance vs. the Cubs last year and his career ERA (9.35) and WHIP (2.769) against the Cubs are... not good.

Brault will be the first lefthanded starter the Pirates have used this year. The Cubs are 21-11 vs. LH starters this year, and as noted above, are starting a mostly righthanded-hitting lineup (three switch-hitters in Ben Zobrist, Victor Caratini and Ian Happ) against Brault.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday (classic mode) (Note: Going forward, I am going to link to the “classic” Gameday here because MLB.com broke the links I used to use to get to their “new” Gameday. If you click on this link, you can then click on “New Gameday” at the bottom of the page to get to the updated version. Note that the “classic” Gameday won’t load until just before game time.)

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.