Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Saturday 7/10, 6:15 CT

Saturday notes...

• YOU LOOK FAMILIAR: Including tonight’s game, the Cubs and Cardinals will meet six times between now and July 22. The Cubs lead the season series 6-1.
• GO, GO, NICO: Over his last four games, Nico Hoerner is hitting .400/.438/.400 (6-for-15) with a walk and no strikeouts.
• J-HEY!: In his last 18 games since June 17, Jason Heyward is hitting .346/.433/.462 (18-for-52) with three doubles, a home run and seven walks.
• WILLSON IS HOT: In his last 15 games since June 21, Willson Contreras is hitting .275/.431/.490 (14-for-51) with five doubles, two home runs and 12 walks.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Zach Davies, RHP vs. Kwang Hyun Kim, LHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Zach Davies has faced the Cardinals twice this year and allowed no runs in 11⅔ innings, with a 0.943 WHIP.

I mean, I could write a lot more about Zach here and how he’s been very good recently, but that dominance of St. Louis is good enough for me. Keep up the good work.

Kwang Hyun Kim is one of two starters in the Cardinals Opening Day rotation who isn’t injured right now (along with Adam Wainwright, who will start tomorrow).

Kim’s having a pretty good year, with a 3.39 ERA and 1.281 WHIP. He has not faced the Cubs this year. Over his last five starts he has a 2.39 ERA and just one home run allowed in 26⅓ innings.

The Cubs do well against lefthanded starters, though; they are 14-11 against them this year, including Friday’s win, so there’s that.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Fox-TV (regional — coverage map). Fox announcers: Adam Amin and Eric Karros.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com 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 2021 Game Thread procedure will be a bit different than previous years. It will be similar to what we’ve used for Spring Training.

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, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.