Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Monday 8/22, 7:05 CT

Monday notes...

• NOT KEEPING THE LEAD: Sunday’s loss dropped the Cubs to 39-6 when leading entering the seventh inning.
• THE CENTURY MARK: Ian Happ’s 100th home run Sunday made him the 26th player in Cubs franchise history to reach that mark with the team, tied with Keith Moreland. Next up: Rick Monday (106) and Shawon Dunston (107).
• THE FRANIMAL: Franmil Reyes extended his on-base streak to 11 games to begin his Cubs career, hitting safely in 10 of the games and drawing a walk in the other. He is batting .333/.340/.622 (15-for-45) with three doubles, two triples, two homers and seven RBI as a Cub.
• PITCHING, STILL GOOD: Even following Sunday’s meltdown, Cubs pitching has posted a 2.84 ERA (88 earned runs in 279⅓ innings) in the team’s last 31 games since July 16, the second-lowest ERA in the majors during that span, behind the Dodgers. Cubs pitching in this stretch has walked 98, struck out 269 and held opponents to a .231 BA (242-for-1,046).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Also of interest (time listed is ET):

Drew Smyly, LHP vs. Jordan Montgomery, LHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Drew Smyly, last six starts: 2.59 ERA, 1.117 WHIP, only six walks and three HR allowed in 31⅓ innings.

That’s really good!

This will be a good test for Smyly, as he has not faced the Cardinals yet this year. Current Cardinals are hitting .213 against him in a small sample size (10-for-47). Nolan Arenado is the only Cardinal to homer off Smyly.

You might remember Jordan Montgomery’s start against the Cubs for the Yankees June 11 in New York — seven shutout innings, five hits allowed, five strikeouts.

Since the somewhat-odd trade of Montgomery to St. Louis (for Harrison Bader, who is injured and has yet to play for the Yankees), Montgomery has allowed one run in three starts covering 16⅔ innings.

The Cubs are a better team now than they were in June, but this still will not be easy.

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.