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The trade deadline has passed and Cubs baseball games continue. Here is a preview of one of them!
This is going to be probably the weirdest game preview I’ve ever written. Earlier this afternoon, the Cubs traded the scheduled starting pitcher for tonight’s game, Trevor Williams, to the Mets in the Javier Báez deal.
As of the time of this post they hadn’t announced a replacement starter. The Nationals, who also made a whole bunch of deadline deals, had a late announcement of their starting pitcher:
Paolo Espino will start tonight, a late change. Sounds like it would've been Jon Lester.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) July 30, 2021
All I’ve got on Espino relevant to the Cubs is that he threw an inning of relief against the Cubs May 17 at Wrigley Field and allowed a run on an RBI single by Jason Heyward.
There aren’t any lineups either at this point, so please check the BCB Twitter feed for lineups later on.
Here are the rest of today’s particulars, such as they are.
Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. The game is also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Nationals market territories).
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Nationals site Federal Baseball. If you do go there to interact with Nationals 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.