Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Friday 6/7, 1:20 CT

Notes for Friday:

• Javier Baez has three multi-hit games in his last four games and leads the Cubs with 25 multi-hit games.
• Kris Bryant has scored a run in four straight games and leads the team with 47 runs scored on the season. The 47 runs ties him for fourth in the National League with Christian Yelich.
• Carl Edwards Jr., who threw two-thirds of an inning Thursday with a strikeout, has a 2.13 ERA (three earned runs in 12⅔ innings) in 14 games since being recalled from Triple-A Iowa May 6. He has just one walk and 14 strikeouts in that span.
• Kyle Schwarber went 1-for-4 with his first 2019 stolen base Thursday, and has hit safely in five straight games (7-for-19, .368/.429/.579, one double, one home run).
• The Cubs rank third in the N.L. in runs per game (5.21) and are second in OPS (.795). They have 254 walks (4.16) per game, which is a pace for 675. That would break the franchise record of 656, set in 2016.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Cole Hamels, LHP vs. Miles Mikolas, RHP

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Cole Hamels had one of the best starts of his Cubs career last Sunday in St. Louis: Seven innings, two hits, two walks, one run.

Another one just like that, please.

Miles Mikolas threw seven strong innings against the Cubs last Friday in St. Louis. He allowed six hits and one run. Mikolas hasn’t had quite the year in 2019 that he had in 2018, but he always seems to throw well against the Cubs.

Let’s change that this afternoon. FWIW, Mikolas has been much worse on the road this year (five starts, 7.66 ERA, 1.791 WHIP, seven HR in 22⅓ innings) than at home (2.87 ERA, 0.872 WHIP, five HR in 47 innings). So maybe that’ll work in the Cubs’ favor.

Today’s game is on NBC Sports Chicago. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Cardinals market territories). This game is also being carried by streaming service ESPN+ — sign up for ESPN+ here. ESPN+ games are blacked out in the participating teams’ home markets. If you have “cut the cord,” NBC Sports Chicago games can be streamed in the Cubs’ market territory via Fubo. Sign up for Fubo here.

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 2019 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used in previous years. 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.