Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Sunday 7/23, 1:20 CT

Sunday notes...

• IT’S BEEN 17 YEARS: The last time the Cubs won a four-game series at home against the Cardinals, as they have a chance to do this afternoon, this was their starting lineup in the series finale: Juan Pierre CF, Todd Walker 2B, Aramis Ramirez 3B, Phil Nevin 1B Jacque Jones RF, Matt Murton LF, Ronny Cedeno SS, Henry Blanco C, Carlos Zambrano P. It was on Sunday, July 30, 2006, when the Cubs scored five runs in the first two innings and coasted to a 6-3 victory, giving them three of four in the series. Since then, the Cubs have split four series of four games, in 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2016, and were swept in series in 2019 and 2021. The Cubs did win a pair of five-game series, both 3-2, in 2018 and 2020. They also lost three five-game series, all 3-2: one in 2020 and two in 2022. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• STILL EN FUEGO: Cody Bellinger, last 22 games since June 27: .447/.478/.718 (38-for-85) with five doubles, six home runs, 19 RBI and 20 runs scored. Bellinger is 19 plate appearances short of qualifying, but if he had enough PA to qualify, his .319 BA would be tied for fifth in MLB and his .539 SLG would rank 10th.
• ALSO A HOT HITTER: Seiya Suzuki, last 15 games since July 4: .339/.373/.484 (21-for-62) with a double, a triple, two home runs and nine runs scored.
• GOOD PITCHING: Javier Assad, last six outings since June 16: 1.06 ERA, 1.000 WHIP, 17 strikeouts in 17 innings, only one home run. All six outings were at least two innings.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

The Cardinals lineup was not available at posting time. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Cardinals lineup.

Jameson Taillon, RHP vs. Jordan Montgomery, LHP

Small sample size: Over Jameson Taillon’s last two starts, he has a 1.93 ERA and 0.805 WHIP. Of course, that’s only 13⅔ innings and most of it was a great outing against the Yankees. Still, progress!

He faced the Cardinals May 9 at Wrigley Field and trust me, you do not want to click on that link. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Let’s just hope today is better.

The Cubs hit Jordan Montgomery pretty hard May 10 at Wrigley Field: six runs in five innings, including home runs by Patrick Wisdom and Yan Gomes.

Over his last nine starts, though, Montgomery has been very good: 1.68 ERA, 1.025 WHIP, only three home runs in 53⅔ innings. The Cubs will have to bring their “A” game to the plate today.

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.