Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets preview, Sunday 6/3, 12:10 CT

The Cubs have been playing the Mets for 57 seasons, since the New Yorkers entered the league as an expansion team in 1962. Overall, the Cubs are 375-359 against the Mets, but their record against them in New York isn’t good: 174-189, though Saturday night’s win gave the Cubs a winning record all-time in Citi Field at 17-16.

Anyway, in that long history, the Cubs have swept the Mets in New York in a four-game series just three times: 1962, 1965 and 1991, none of which were winning seasons for either team.

A win this afternoon would give the Cubs a four-game sweep, and be much more meaningful than any of those long-ago four-game sweeps in New York. (The Cubs did sweep the Mets in a four-game series at Wrigley Field in 2015.)

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Mets lineup:

Jon Lester, LHP vs. Steven Matz, LHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Jon Lester made two starts against the Mets last year, and threw a total of 13 innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out 15. Particularly good was his start at Citi Field, June 13, 2017 — seven innings, one run, 10 strikeouts.

Current Mets are hitting .222 (51-for-230) against Jon with nine home runs, five of which have been hit by Jose Bautista, who is reaching the end of his career.

Jon’s had quite a bit of success career-wise vs. the Mets: 3.83 ERA, 1.425 WHIP in seven starts, and outside of this game, the worst start of Jon’s career, the other six: 2.30 ERA, 1.216 WHIP.

Jon’s last seven starts: 1.69 ERA, 1.031 WHIP in 42⅔ innings.

Steven Matz is having a solid season after having most of the last two ruined by injury. He had a good May (2.57 ERA, 1.286 WHIP) after a not-so-great April. His only career starts vs. the Cubs came in 2016. He allowed the Cubs seven runs in 11⅓ innings. and homers to Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Baez.

More of that, please.

Today’s game is on ABC7 Chicago. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Chicago and New York 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 2018 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used during 2017. 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.

Discuss amongst yourselves.