Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Saturday 7/28, 3:05 CT

Alec Mills looked pretty good in his two-inning stint Friday, but since he wouldn't be available for Saturday's game, the Cubs summoned a reinforcement:

Mills looked decent. He will likely be back. Cory Mazzoni is probably up just through Sunday.

Saturday notes:

• Despite the Cubs losing Friday to have their lead in the N.L. Central cut to 1½ games, they are 34-21 (.618) starting May 27, making up six games on the Brewers in that span.
• Javier Baez is now the fourth Cub in the last 16 seasons to reach 20 homers and 75 RBI prior to August 1. The others: Anthony Rizzo (24 HR, 79 RBI) in 2016 and Derrek Lee (32 HR, 83 RBI) and Aramis Ramirez (27 HR, 76 RBI) in 2005. Sammy Sosa did it each season from 1996-2001.
• Ben Zobrist leads the team with a .314 road batting average (44-for-140), a fraction of a percentage point ahead of Javier Baez’ .314 mark (59-for-188). Baez is batting .391 (18-for-46) with six doubles, five homers, 14 RBI and a 1.264 OPS in his last 10 road games since June 26.
• Anthony Rizzo in the 13 games since being moved to the leadoff spot: .447/.542/.723 (21-for-47) with five doubles, a triple, two home runs and nine walks. Rizzo’s season OPS is now at .800 for the first time since June 7.
• Rizzo’s Friday night homer tied him with D-Lee for 12th on the Cubs’ all-time list with 179. Next up: Alfonso Soriano (181).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Jose Quintana, RHP vs. Miles Mikolas, RHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Jose Quintana had one of his better outings of the year last Sunday at Wrigley Field against the Cardinals, throwing seven innings, allowing six hits and two runs. He did walk four, but went seven for the first time in two months. The Cubs could use that again, to help save the bullpen. He threw a season high 121 pitches in that outing.

This game is a pitching rematch of last Sunday, as Miles Mikolas started for the Cardinals in that game. The Cubs had six hits and two runs in five innings off Mikolas, and eventually won the game off the Cardinals bullpen. Mikolas threw just 74 pitches in Sunday’s game, the fewest he’s thrown in any start this year. (Most likely, nothing to read into that other than the game was tied 2-2 at the time and the Cardinals wanted some offense, pinch-hitting for Mikolas.)

Today’s game is on NBC Sports Chicago. It’s also on FS1 (no blackouts).

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.