Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Monday 5/8, 6:40 CT

Today’s roster move: Here

Monday notes...

• OH, THOSE ONE-RUN LOSSES: Eight of the Cubs’ 17 losses have been by one run. Just three teams have had more one-run losses, each with nine, and they all have won at least double the Cubs’ two wins by a run. The Mariners are 4-9; the Reds, 5-9; and the Guardians, 8-9. The Cubs’ .200 winning percentage in one-run games is tied with the Rangers (1-4) for second worst. The Cardinals are at .125, having gone 1-7. The Astros and Giants also have only two wins by a run and both have three losses. The Cubs have had more one-run losses in their first 34 games of only four seasons: 10, in 2002, and nine in 1972, 1990 and 1993. They had only two wins by one run in 2002 and 1990.They were 7-9 in 1993 and 3-9 in 1972. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• HOME SWEET HOME: The Cubs have a 3.56 team ERA at Wrigley Field (70 earned runs in 177 innings). That’s the third-best home ERA in the National League behind the Dodgers and Brewers.
• NOT WALKING ON BY: Cubs pitchers have walked 97 batters so far this year. That’s tied for second-best among N.L. teams (Giants are first with 93). It’s also tied for sixth (with the Dodgers) for sixth-best in MLB.
• GETTING ON BASE: The Cubs’ team OBP of .338 ranks second in the N.L. (Braves, .340) and fifth in MLB.
• UNFORTUNATELY, STAYING ON BASE: The Cubs’ team total of 255 runners left on base is third-most in MLB. Only the Cardinals (257) and Blue Jays (260) have left more runners.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Also of interest for tonight:

Marcus Stroman, RHP vs. Miles Mikolas, RHP

Marcus Stroman has been consistently good almost all season so far. Last time out he allowed one run in six innings to the Nationals.

The last time he faced the Cardinals was September 4, 2022 in St. Louis, and he threw seven shutout innings that day.

The one Cardinal who hits him well is Paul Goldschmidt (8-for-18, two doubles, three home runs).

Miles Mikolas is off to a rough start. He’s leading MLB in hits allowed with 53, and he’s allowed an opponents BA of .333 and OPS of .908 with seven home runs in 37⅓ innings.

This will be his 17th career appearance (15th start) vs. the Cubs. He made five starts vs. the Cubs last year — that won’t be possible anymore since the teams are only playing four series against each other this year.

Current Cubs are batting .260 (33-for-127) against Mikolas with four home runs mostly from guys you wouldn’t expect (Tucker Barnhart, Patrick Wisdom, Eric Hosmer and Dansby Swanson).

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Cardinals market territories).

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 2023 Game Thread procedure will be like last year’s, 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.