Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Thursday 7/27, 6:45 CT

It is going to be HOT at Busch Stadium this weekend — check out this forecast!

Thursday notes...

• HITTING THE BREAK-EVEN MARK: A win tonight will put the Cubs at .500 for the season. They have not had as many wins as losses since May 12, when they were 19-19 after a 6-2 win at Minnesota. Tonight’s game will be the Cubs’ seventh of the season in which they had a chance to reach .500. They have lost four of the previous six: 7-6 at Cincinnati when they were 1-2, 6-4 at home vs. the Cardinals when they were 17-18, 16-3 at Minnesota when they were 19-20 and 7-5 vs. the Cardinals at London when they were 37-38. Their two wins were 12-5 at Cincinnati when they were 2-3 and 6-2 at Minnesota when they were 18-19. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• RUN DIFFERENTIAL UPDATE: The Cubs remain the only N.L. Central team with a positive run differential, +48. The other N.L. Central teams: Brewers -3, Reds -6, Cardinals -18, Pirates -73. The Cubs’ run differential is fourth-best in the National League (Braves +140, Dodgers +97 and Padres +51 are better).
• SOX vs. CUBS WRAP: The two wins in the Crosstown Classic made the all-time series 73 wins for the Sox, 67 for the Cubs, but the Cubs have outscored the Sox 646-641 all-time. All-time in Crosstown Classic games, those 646 runs amount to 4.61 runs per game, and the Cubs have batted .250 (1,184-for-4,735) with 179 home runs, while Cubs pitchers have posted a 4.37 ERA (603 earned runs in 1,232⅔ innings). The teams meet again August 15-16 at Wrigley Field.
• DANSBY DOINGS: Despite his 0-for-5 night Wednesdaywith four strikeouts, since his return from the injured list Dansby Swanson is batting .438/.500/.875 (7-for-16) with a double and two home runs.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Miles Mikolas, RHP

Justin Steele allowed two runs in 6⅓ innings last Friday in the Cubs’ 4-3 win at Wrigley Field. He struck out nine.

Another one just like that, please.

The Cubs hit Miles Mikolas for 11 hits and five runs in five innings last Saturday at Wrigley Field, and the Cubs won the game 8-6.

Another one just like that, please.

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. 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.