Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Saturday 8/3, 1:20 CT

Saturday notes:

• Javier Baez tied his career-high Friday with three extra-base hits. He leads the team with 26 home runs and 72 RBI and is tied for the team lead with nine three-plus hit games with Kris Bryant. Javy also hit his 29th and 30th doubles of the year, tied for second-most in the N.L.
• Jason Heyward hit his eighth career leadoff home run and his first as a Cub. It was his first leadoff home run since August 27, 2014, and it marked the seventh homer by a Cub this season to lead-off a game.
• Nicholas Castellanos hit his MLB-leading 38th double. Castellanos has a .381 (8-for-21) career average at Wrigley Field.
• Team notes, for the record: The Cubs are 9-2 in their last 11 home games and are 37-18 (.673) at home this season, the second-best mark in the N.L. behind the Dodgers. The win Friday gave the Cubs a 17-5 record against N.L. Central teams at home this year.
• Team hitting notes: The Cubs had all nine starters record a hit in a game at Wrigley Field for the first time since August 27, 2018 vs. the Mets. And, the 12 hits were the most since July 14 vs. Pittsburgh (13).
• ICYMI, Ben Zobrist went 0-for-3 with a walk in his first rehab game for the South Bend Cubs. He’s expected to DH for them again tonight in South Bend.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Brewers lineup:

Cole Hamels, LHP vs. Gio Gonzalez, LHP

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Cole Hamels has missed a month after suffering an oblique injury in Cincinnati at the end of June. At the time, he was pitching well enough that he might have been named to the All-Star team if healthy.

Hopefully, he will pick up where he left off. In his five starts immediately before the injury he posted a 1.00 ERA and 0.889 WHIP, with 36 strikeouts in 36 innings.

He’s made two starts against the Brewers this year and allowed three earned runs in 13 total innings, with 10 strikeouts. The Cubs won both games.

The Cubs scored two runs in 6⅓ innings off Gio Gonzalez July 26 in Miller Park (a two-run homer by David Bote), which might have been enough for a win, had the bullpen not had a ridiculously bad meltdown. Let’s just leave it at that.

Gonzalez also had a very good outing against the Cubs May 10 at Wrigley Field, in which he allowed just two hits in 5⅔ shutout innings.

This is a good matchup of veteran lefthanders and I’d expect a low-scoring game this afternoon.

Today’s game is on NBC Sports Chicago.

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 Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. If you do go there to interact with Brewers 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.