Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Wednesday 8/24, 7:05 CT

Today's roster moves: Here

Wednesday notes...

• LOTS OF CUBS: Nicholas Padilla became the 56th Cub this season when he made his MLB debut in Game 2 of the doubleheader Tuesday. That ties this year’s Cubs with the 2013 edition for the second-most players in franchise history, and the addition of Luke Farrell today will make 57. The franchise record (and MLB record) is 69, set last year.
• LOTS OF NEW CUBS: Padilla is the 12th Cub to make his MLB debut this year. The other 11: Javier Assad, Narciso Crook, Anderson Espinoza, Brandon Hughes, Caleb Kilian, Christopher Morel, Ethan Roberts, Seiya Suzuki, Matt Swarmer, Erich Uelmen and Nelson Velázquez.
• HE’S HOT: Michael Rucker, last 12 games since July 9: 1.84 ERA, 0.886 WHIP, .170 opponents BA.
• SO IS HE: Christopher Morel, last six games: .333/.333/.556 (6-for-18), a double, a home run.
• AND SO IS THIS GUY: Nick Madrigal, 16 games since returning from the injured list August 4: .321/.406/.357 (18-for-56), two doubles, six walks, six multi-hit games.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Luke Farrell, RHP vs. Miles Mikolas, RHP

The thing I remember most about Luke Farrell’s one season with the Cubs is the five shutout innings he threw, with seven strikeouts, in relief against the Mets in a 14-inning game June 2, 2018. The Cubs eventually won that game 7-2.

Farrell has since spent time with the Rangers and Twins and the Cubs reacquired him as a free agent this past May. He’s made 17 appearances (11 starts) at Triple-A Iowa with a 5.03 ERA and 1.458 WHIP, which isn’t all that good. But who knows, maybe tonight will be different. Farrell has not appeared in MLB this year, so the pitch selection graphic below is from 2021.

Both of Farrell’s brothers, Jeremy and Shane, used to work in the Cubs front office. Jeremy Farrell is now Director of Player Development for the Reds and Shane Farrell is Director of Amateur Scouting for the Blue Jays. As you probably know, the father of all three, John Farrell, used to be a MLB pitcher and manager.

Miles Mikolas threw 6⅓ innings vs. the Cubs August 4 in St. Louis and allowed three runs, including a home run by Willson Contreras.

Since then he got torched by the Rockies (14 hits and 10 runs in 2⅓ innings) and had two good outings, eight innings each, vs. the Brewers and Diamondbacks.

The last time he pitched in Wrigley Field, June 3, the Cubs scored four runs in five innings off him, including a home run by Patrick Wisdom. Mikolas does have a higher ERA (4.23) on the road than at home (2.45), so there’s that.

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.