Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals Game 2 preview, Saturday 7/21, 6:15 CT

Here is all the info you need for tonight’s second game.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Mike Montgomery, LHP vs. John Gant, RHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Montgomery’s first five starts after coming out of the bullpen this year were outstanding: 1.21 ERA, 0.843 WHIP. The four after that, not so much: 6.00 ERA, 1.381 WHIP. Seems like he might have run out of gas. His last start was July 11 against the Giants, so hopefully the All-Star break and extra rest will have helped him.

He has two relief outings against the Cardinals this year covering four innings, allowing no hits and one walk with two strikeouts. Overall current Cardinals are 8-for-40 (.200) against MiMo with no home runs.

John Gant has had a couple of stints with the Cardinals this year, going back and forth between the big leagues and Triple-A, and when with St. Louis, back and forth between the bullpen and rotation.

His only career start against the Cubs came on June 12, 2016 when he was with the Braves. The Cubs did not treat him kindly: four hits, four walks and three runs in 4⅓ innings. More of this today, please.

Today’s game is on Fox-TV (regional — coverage map). Again a reminder that if you have MLB Extra Innings or MLB.tv and this game is not on the Fox station in your market, you can watch via those services. Fox announcers: Len Kasper and Tom Verducci.

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 Cardinals site Viva el Birdos. If you do go there to interact with Cardinals 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 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.