Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals Game 1 preview, Saturday 6/4, 12:20 CT

SITE NOTE: As is my practice for split doubleheaders, there won’t be a separate recap for Game 1 after this game. A preview for Game 2 will post shortly before that game starts, at 5 p.m. CT. A full recap of both games will post here Sunday morning at 8 a.m. CT.

Today's roster moves: Here

Saturday notes...

• THEY SHOULD PRETEND EVERY INNING IS THE FIRST: The Cubs lead MLB in first-inning runs scored with 47 and are batting .301/.388/.539 with 11 first-inning home runs.
• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom, last 15 games: .286/.385/.643 (16-for-56) with two doubles, six home runs, eight walks, 12 runs scored and only 17 strikeouts. His home run Friday was his 40th as a Cub in 157 games.
• THE STOLEN BASE: The Cubs have 36 stolen bases in the 52 games played so far, led by Christopher Morel with six (in just 17 games!). That’s only nine short of their total for the entire 2019 season. Of those 36, 23 have come in the team’s last 14 games.
• THE THOMPSON FILE: Keegan Thompson shares the MLB lead with six wins and is the only MLB pitcher with at least three wins as both a starter and reliever. His 1.99 ERA makes him one of seven pitchers in the NL with an ERA under 2.00 (minimum 40 innings).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Matt Swarmer, RHP vs. Johan Oviedo, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Matt Swarmer had a successful MLB debut Monday against the Brewers. He did serve up a couple of home runs, but one of them came after an error extended an inning — only one of the four runs he allowed was earned.

Swarmer has obviously never faced the Cardinals or anyone on their active roster. He’s just short of the 100 pitches needed to have a Statcast visual, so I can’t present that here today. Here’s his pitch selection from Monday — almost all fastballs and sliders. (Hint: He’s going to need a third pitch he can count on or his future will be in the bullpen.)

Johan Oviedo made 19 appearances (18 starts) for the Cardinals in 2020 and 2021, but has spent this year at Triple-A Memphis — until now.

At Memphis he has posted a 5.58 ERA and 1.320 WHIP in 10 starts, with 14 (!) home runs allowed in 50 innings.

That’s not good.

Oviedo last faced the Cubs July 20, 2021 in St. Louis, but a lot of those guys aren’t on the Cubs anymore.

So, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This Oviedo pitch mix chart is from last year:

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.