Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Saturday 9/3, 6:15 CT

Saturday notes...

• THE MADRIGAL FILES: Since returning from the injured list August 4, Nick Madrigal is batting .310/.383/.345 (26-for-84) with eight walks. These numbers are closer to what he hit with the White Sox before last year’s trade (.317/.358/.406 in 83 games and 324 PA).
• DOUBLING HIS PLEASURE: Ian Happ has 35 doubles this year, which is tied for fifth in the NL with Starling Marte. The last Cubs player to have 40 doubles in a season was Javier Báez in 2018; the last Cub to have more than 40 was Anthony Rizzo, who hit 43 in 2016.
• THEY NEED THE SUN: The Cubs are 26-26 in day games this year, but 30-50 in night games. Of the team’s 30 remaining games, 13 are day games, 17 are night games.
• HE’S HOT: Seiya Suzuki, last 13 games since August 21: .386/.460/.546 (17-for-44) with four doubles, a home run and six walks. This includes six multi-hit games. Here’s hoping for a strong finish to 2022 for Seiya.
• HE’S NOT: Nico Hoerner, last 17 games since August 17: .164/.215/.230 (10-for-61), one double, one home run. He’s still not striking out much — only eight in that span — but it seems like he could use a day off.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Drew Smyly, LHP vs. Adam Wainwright, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Drew Smyly had a fantastic August — five starts, 0.90 ERA, 0.933 WHIP — and that included a seven-inning, one-run outing against the Cardinals August 22 at Wrigley Field. Unfortunately, the one run was a home run by Albert Pujols — the only homer Smyly allowed the entire month — and that was the game where Jordan Montgomery shut out the Cubs on one hit.

Let’s hope Smyly continues his great pitching into September.

Adam Wainwright threw six innings and allowed two runs to the Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader August 23 at Wrigley Field. Those runs were enough to win the game.

At age 40, Wainwright is having an excellent season, worth 2.7 bWAR with a month to go. This will be his 48th career start against the Cubs. Only two pitchers have had more in the divisional play era (Steve Carlton, 65, and Bob Forsch, 49).

Wainwright might retire at the end of this season, but he’s given no specific indication he will do so, and off the season he’s having I can see him returning.

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.