Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Monday 7/4, 3:10 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Monday notes...

• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom, last 12 games since June 21: .306/.370/.653 (15-for-49) with two doubles and five home runs. While he is leading the NL in strikeouts (105), he has cut down on his K rate. First 38 games this year: 56 strikeouts in 132 at-bats. Next 37 games: 47 strikeouts in 139 at-bats.
• RECENT SUCCESS: The Cubs’ bullpen has posted a 2.45 ERA (13 earned runs in 47⅔ innings) in its last 11 games. Also, Cubs hitters have batted .293/.377/.466 (115-for-393) with 13 home runs over their last 11 games.
• WILLSON!: On the just-completed homestand, Willson Contreras hit .391/.533/.652 (9-for-23) with three doubles, a home run and six walks. Overall at Wrigley this year: .306/.422/.556 with eight home runs in 144 at-bats.
• THE MOREL FILES: Christopher Morel has 20 extra-base hits, tied for second among NL rookies with Juan Yepez. Morel’s .824 OPS leads NL rookies (minimum 150 PA), ahead of Yepez (.823).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Brewers lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Eric Lauer, LHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Justin Steele had a good month of June: five starts, 3.03 ERA, 1.348 WHIP. He put his team in position to win all five times, though they only won two of those starts largely due to shoddy bullpen work.

Anyway — the start before that was against the Brewers (and Eric Lauer), May 31 at Wrigley Field. Steele threw five innings and allowed three runs, which isn’t bad... but it isn’t really great either. Overall this year vs. Milwaukee: three starts, 3.46 ERA, 1.539 WHIP, no home runs in 13 innings.

Eric Lauer did not have a good month of June: five starts, 6.83 ERA, 1.482 WHIP, eight home runs in 27⅔ innings. He didn’t throw all that well against the Cubs in that May 31 game, either (four innings, five hits, three walks, three runs).

So let’s hope for another one of those.

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 Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. If you do go there to interact with Brewers 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.