Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Saturday 9/9, 3:05 CT

The Cubs simply need to take care of business the next two days. If they can win this series, they will end it six games ahead of the Brewers with 19 remaining. And they’ll still have four more chances to take care of Milwaukee a couple of weekends from now.

Meanwhile, while you were (probably) sleeping, the Dodgers lost again, this time blowing a 4-1 lead to the Rockies and losing 5-4. The Nationals hung on Friday night and defeated the Phillies 11-10 after leading 10-4 after six. That means the Dodgers’ lead over the Nats for the best record in the N.L. is now just five games. Two weeks ago, that lead was 14½ games, but since August 25 the Nats are 11-4, while the Dodgers are 1-13. (The Cubs are 9-5 in that span.)

The Nats’ win included an inside-the-park grand slam by Michael A. Taylor. That’s notable enough, but I thought you’d like to see how Statcast posted the launch angle and trajectory:

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Jay LF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Zobrist 2B, Almora CF, Avila C, Heyward RF, Baez SS, Montgomery P

Brewers lineup:

Perez 2B, Santana RF, Braun LF, Shaw 3B, Aguilar 1B, Pina C, Broxton CF, Arcia SS, Anderson P

Mike Montgomery vs. Chase Anderson

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports

This was originally going to be Jake Arrieta’s turn, with Mike Montgomery returning to the bullpen, but fortunately Montgomery is available to fill in while Jake recuperates from the hamstring strain suffered last Monday in Pittsburgh.

Montgomery has allowed four runs in 18 innings in the three starts he’s made since mid-August and, more importantly, has cut down on the walks, just two of them in those 18 innings.

He has made two relief appearances vs. the Brewers this year, allowing one run in 3⅓ innings. Current Brewers are hitting .261 (24-for-92) against him with four home runs. Ryan Braun is 4-for-9 with a homer.

Chase Anderson is having a very good year, though he missed two months with an oblique injury.

Since his return from that injury: four starts, 3.80 ERA, 1.266 WHIP. On April 17 at Wrigley Field, he threw five innings against the Cubs and allowed seven hits and three runs (two earned).

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

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.