Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Sunday 6/5, 6:08 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Sunday notes:

• THE MOREL FILES: Christopher Morel went 5-for-9 in Saturday’s doubleheader. In doing so he became just the second Cub rookie in the last 40 years (also Kris Bryant, September 11, 2015 at Philadelphia to record five hits in a doubleheader. (H/T: Elias and STATS Inc.)
• MORE ON MOREL: Since moving to the leadoff spot May 24, Morel is hitting .291/.394/.436 (16-for-55) with six doubles, a triple and five stolen bases in 13 games.
• FRANK THE TANK: Since his almost-demotion to Triple-A Iowa and quick recall without ever going there, Frank Schwindel is hitting .275/.330/.520 (28-for-102) with seven doubles, six home runs, 20 RBI and 14 runs scored.
• MORE TANK:

• WILLSON!: Willson Contreras, last 25 games: .318/.448/.635 (27-for-85) with four doubles, a triple, seven home runs, 12 walks and 20 runs. Willson as a DH this year: .347/.429/.674 (17-for-49) with four home runs.
• HIGGINS NEWS: During his current five-game hitting streak, P.J. Higgins is batting .368/.400/.684 (7-for-19) with two home runs.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Adam Wainwright, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Basically, Justin Steele has to cut down on the walks. He’s walking 5.2 per nine innings, which is bad.

Out of his seven starts in which he’s walked two or fewer, six have been really good. (The other one was when he got pounded for seven hits and seven runs in two innings in Cincinnati.) When he walks three or more (three starts), his ERA is 8.44.

Small sample size caveats, of course, but the basic idea is: Throw strikes!

Steele made one start against the Cardinals last year and trust me, you do not want to look at this boxscore link. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Man, this is crazy. Adam Wainwright is 40! One of his teammates his rookie year was Larry Walker, who is in the Hall of Fame and is 55!

And Wainwright is throwing like he’s 10 years younger. He’s probably going to make the All-Star team. He doesn’t throw that hard anymore (as shown below), but he’s smart enough to know how to still get outs. Tip o’ the cap for an outstanding career.

Today is Wainwright’s 45th career start vs. the Cubs. That ties Steve Rogers for fourth-most against the Cubs in the divisional play era (since 1969). Next up: Phil Niekro, 46. The Cubs and Cardinals have four more series this year, so it’s possible Wainwright will wind up with 49 career starts against the Cubs. That would tie Bob Forsch for second on this list, and would rank tied for 18th-most against the Cubs since 1920.

For a guy who’s been around this long, of course he’s faced Jason Heyward a lot (even though they were teammates in 2015). Heyward has hit him well: .357/.386/.595 (15-for-42) with three doubles, two triples and a home run.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on ESPN.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

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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.