NEWSLETTER
Alright, so the Cubs lost the opener. That’s okay. We still really only need them to win one of these remaining two games to make this weekend series not a win for the Cardinals, who are eight games back already.
Jose Quintana will go for the Cubs in this one, and he’s actually been on quite a nice little streak. In each of his last three outings, Quintana has gone at least 6.0 innings (he went 7.0 innings last time out, incidentally against these very Cardinals) with two or fewer earned runs.
He’s walked just 9 batters during that stretch and has struck out only 13, BUT he’s gotten a ton of soft contact and very little hard contact, so he’s getting the job done. If that strikeout rate comes back while he’s keeping batters so off balance, he might just put it all together. For today, let’s just root for another quality start, by whatever means necessary … because the Cubs might need it.
Going for the Cardinals this afternoon is Miles Mikolas. Mikolas wasn’t quite his usual All-Star self his last time out (against the Cubs last weekend), but he did keep them to just two runs over 5.0 innings with 6Ks and 2BBs. I believe Quintana will deliver a good start, but the Cubs will still have to do more damage than that this time around.
Let’s see if they got it in them to even this series up.
Game Info
Chicago Cubs (60-43) at St. Louis Cardinals (52-51) – Saturday, July 28 at 3:05 CT on CSN-C, FS1, 670 The Score
Game Thread and Series Preview
Your game thread is down in the comments, so let’s have some good, clean (safe-for-work) fun today.
Starting Pitchers
Cubs: Jose Quintana (L): 3.87 ERA, 4.56 FIP; 1.90 K/BB
versus
Cardinals: Miles Mikolas (R): 2.82 ERA, 3.22 FIP; 4.05 K/BB
St. Louis Cardinals:
- Matt Carpenter, 3B
- Yadier Molina, C
- Paul DeJong, SS
- Jose Martinez, 1B
- Marcell Ozuna, LF
- Tommy Pham, CF
- Dexter Fowler, RF
- Yairo Munoz, 2B
- Miles Mikolas, P
Chicago Cubs Lineup:
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- Albert Almora Jr., CF
- Jason Heyward, RF
- Javy Baez, SS
- Willson Contreras, C
- Kyle Schwarber, LF
- Ian Happ, 3B
- Jose Quintana, P
- David Bote, 2B
