Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Sunday 6/26, 1:15 CT

Sunday notes...

• HAPP-ENINGS: Ian Happ has a .613 SLG at Busch Stadium, the best all-time for a Cub with at least 30 games/100 plate appearances at the Cardinals home park. Happ hit his first MLB homer in his first MLB game at Busch May 13, 2017, and has homered there seven times, his most in any park other than Wrigley Field.
• ORTEGA NOTES: Rafael Ortega, last 23 games since May 26: .359/.438/.547 (23-for-64) with three doubles and three home runs. Overall as a Cub: .283/.360/.438 in 525 PA with 15 home runs and 16 stolen bases, good for 2.5 bWAR.
• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom walked just 15 times in 180 PA through the end of May (.306 OBP). He’s walked 13 times in 93 PA in June (.344 OBP) with four games remaining in the month. He’s also cut down on his strikeouts: 40 in 106 PA in May, 27 in 93 PA in June.
• SPLITTING: The Cubs have evenly split the last 18 games (9-9) they have played in Busch Stadium dating to July 30, 2019 (the teams did not meet in St. Louis in 2020). Overall, though, the Cubs are 60-78 in this edition of Busch Stadium, which opened in 2006.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

The Cardinals lineup was not available at posting time. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Cardinals lineup.

Alec Mills, RHP vs. Jack Flaherty, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Alec Mills has made five MLB relief appearances since coming back from back problems. Apart from appearing in the 2-1, 13-inning loss to the Yankees June 10, the average score of the other four games was Opponents 14, Cubs 4, meaning he was just eating up innings in blowouts.

He’s given up a lot of runs for an 8.59 ERA, but a lot of those scored after games were far out of hand.

So, what to expect in this one? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Jack Flaherty is coming back from a shoulder injury that cost him much of the last part of 2021 and the first part of this season.

He’s made two starts so far this year and hasn’t gone past the third inning in either one, maxing out at 71 pitches in his last outing.

So... I would expect the Cardinals to still be careful with him, and perhaps the Cubs can get to him early. Only Willson Contreras (6-for-21, one HR) and Jason Heyward (2-for-18, one HR) have faced him more than a handful of times.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee.

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 2022 Game Thread procedure will be like last years, 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.