Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Saturday 7/22, 1:20 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Saturday notes...

• SCORING ALL THE RUNS IN ONE INNING: The Cubs scored all their runs in one inning in yesterday’s 4-3 win. They had not won by that score, in that fashion, since Aug. 12, 2018, when David Bote’s two-out, ninth-inning “Ultimate Slam” stunned the Nationals. The Cubs have won 335 games since then. Yesterday’s win was the 17th by 4-3. It was the eighth of those in which the Cubs came from behind to win, including four walk-offs. They trailed, 3-0, in two of the wins. In three more, they squandered 3-0 leads before prevailing. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• WINNING FOUR TO THREE: Since 1901, the Cubs have won 518 games by 4-3. They have lost 565 by the same score, including 21 since the win on Bote’s slam.The Cubs had not beaten the Cardinals, 4-3, since September 17, 2017, when Jason Heyward’s two-out single in the bottom of the seventh snapped a tie at three. Yesterday’s game was the 97th between the teams since then. The Cubs have won 44 and lost 53. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• STILL EN FUEGO: Cody Bellinger on the current homestand: five games, .500/.524/.750 (10-for-20), two doubles, a home run. Cody Bellinger, month of July: 17 games, .462/.493/.800 (30-for-65), four doubles, six home runs, 17 runs scored. He could be in line for both Player of the Week and Player of the Month. Sign him, Jed.
• ALSO HOT: Miles Mastrobuoni, since being recalled July 8: eight games, .429/.478/.619 (9-for-21), a double, a home run, eight runs scored.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Michael Fulmer, RHP vs. Miles Mikolas, RHP

After the game Friday, the Cubs announced that Michael Fulmer would start Saturday, though he threw 15 pitches in Friday’s win.

No one’s said anything about this, but it would seem to me that Fulmer is the “opener” and Drew Smyly, whose turn would ordinarily have come up Saturday, follows him. Given that possibility, I’ve placed Smyly’s pitch selection chart below (as well as Fulmer’s). In the meantime, let’s hope Fulmer has a better outing than he did against the Cardinals Friday, when he walked the first two hitters he faced.

Miles Mikolas allowed the Cubs one run in 4⅓ innings May 8 at Wrigley Field. He walked three and struck out seven.

After a few rough outings, he’s been very good over his last three starts: 1.69 ERA, 0.688 WHIP, no walks in 16 innings. Hopefully Cubs hitters can catch up with him this afternoon and stop that hot streak.

Statcast

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here.

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.