On The Horizon: Cubs vs. Cardinals series preview

All right, let’s try this again! The Cubs and Cardinals were supposed to meet August 7-8-9 in St. Louis, but that series was postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests among Cardinals players and staff.

The Cardinals returned to action against the White Sox over the weekend, taking two of three. Now, two of those postponed games from the series in St. Louis will be made up at Wrigley Field this week as part of doubleheaders Monday and Wednesday. (The third game will be made up in September.)

For more on the Cardinals, here’s Josey Curtis, manager of our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva el Birdos:

The Cardinals finally got back on the field this past Saturday after sitting out of action since July 29 due to COVID-19. The team had 10 players test positive. The Cardinals swept the doubleheader from the White Sox on Saturday and dropped Sunday’s contest.

Though it is a small sample size (and broken apart by many days), former Cub Dexter Fowler has been hitting the ball well thus far. Fowler is batting .318 on the young season, joining Paul Goldschmidt’s .333 mark. St. Louis promoted top prospect Dylan Carlson when they returned on Saturday; the switch-hitting outfielder collected two hits over the weekend.

The Cubs will face lefty Kwang Hyun Kim on Monday. The Cardinals signed Kim out of South Korea in the offseason, and he initially was expected to be the team’s closer. With Miles Mikolas shelved, however, Kim will have to round out the rotation.

Site note: The preview article for Monday’s doubleheader will post at 2:30 p.m. CT.

Fun fact

The last time these two teams played a traditional (not day/night) doubleheader was September 19, 1992 at Wrigley Field. A very funny event happened between games of that twin bill, as I wrote here in 2014.

Pitching matchups

Monday: Kyle Hendricks, RHP (3-1, 3.08 ERA, 0.987 WHIP, 2.28 FIP) vs. Kwang Hyun Kim, LHP (0-0, 9.00 ERA, 2.000 WHIP, 3.08 FIP) and TBD vs. TBD

Tuesday: Yu Darvish, RHP (3-1, 1.88 ERA, 0.750 WHIP, 2.12 FIP) vs. Daniel Ponce de Leon, RHP (0-1, 6.75 ERA, 1.250 WHIP, 5.33 FIP)

Wednesday: Alec Mills, RHP (2-1, 2.84 ERA, 0.842 WHIP, 4.13 FIP) vs. Jack Flaherty, RHP (1-0, 2.57 ERA, 0.857 WHIP, 1.37 FIP) or TBD and TBD vs. TBD

As you can see, at posting time for this preview a lot of the pitching matchups were still undecided.

Times & TV channels

Monday: 4:15 p.m. CT, doubleheader, Marquee Sports Network

Tuesday: 7:15 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network, FS1 (no blackouts)

Wednesday: 1:20 p.m. CT, doubleheader, Marquee Sports Network

Prediction

The Cubs have played two five-game series against the Cardinals in recent years. In 2003 they took four of five; in 2018 they took three of five. I’m going to go with the 2003 vibe and say they’ll take four of five from their division rivals this week.

Up next

The Cubs have Thursday off, then host the White Sox in a three-game series beginning Friday evening at Wrigley Field.