Today’s roster move: Here
Friday notes…
HAPPY FOURTH: The Cubs have played a single game at home against the Cardinals on Independence Day only three times before. They lost all three, by 3-2 in 1909 on the West Side Grounds and by 10-5 in 1951 and 11-8 in 2008 at Wrigley Field. The teams have played 10 doubleheaders on the Fourth of July in Chicago. The Cubs won 12 of the 20 games. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
LEAGUE LEADERS: Pete Crow-Armstrong leads the National League with 4.6 bWAR. And Seiya Suzuki leads all of MLB with 73 RBI. The Cubs stand second in MLB with 464 runs and 5.33 runs per game. (The Dodgers lead in both categories.)
WHAT A RELIEF!: The Cubs bullpen has allowed one earned run in its last 34 innings for an ERA of 0.26 and in its last 65 games since April 19 leads MLB with a 2.32 ERA (62 earned runs in 241 innings).
THE BUSCH LEAGUE: Michael Busch, last 34 games since May 18: .311/.382/.557 (38-for-122) with five doubles, two triples, seven home runs, 17 runs scored and 26 RBI.
Here are today’s particulars.
Cubs lineup:
Cardinals lineup:
Colin Rea, RHP vs. Miles Mikolas, RHP
Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images
Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
Colin Rea has had a rough go of it lately, although he did have a decent outing last time out in Houston (five innings, two runs).
He faced the Cardinals twice last year and held them to two runs in nine innings, with seven strikeouts. He’s obviously not going to go nine today, but an outing like last time would work.
Miles Mikolas, the Cardinal every Cubs fan loves to hate. He goes out there with a smirk on his face and seems to like throwing high and inside a lot. He kind of reminds me of a certain cartoon villain:
Kidding, Miles, kidding! (Mostly.)
Mikolas is a pending free agent and turns 37 next month. He might be reaching the end of the line; he has a 4.99 ERA in 83 starts over the last three seasons.
Last year he faced the Cubs four times and had a 5.82 ERA in 21⅔ innings, with four home runs allowed (two of those by Pete Crow-Armstrong). Keep that up, Miles.
Today’s game is on Apple TV+ (how to watch). Announcers: Wayne Randazzo (play-by-play), Dontrelle Willis (analyst) and Heidi Watney (reporter).
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
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 2025 Game Thread procedure will be identical to last year’s.
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.