Chicago Cubs Series Preview: Cardinals come to town for a weekend series

Chicago Cubs: Game 3 – Adam Wainwright vs. Trevor Williams

The last time we faced Adam Wainwright was May 23. He threw eight innings of one-hit,  one-walk, no-run ball. He then had a clunker in Arizona giving up four runs in five innings but since then has had seven straight quality starts and now is the perfect time to bring that to an end.

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Hopefully Ian Happ will get a chance to add to his 8-for-17 lifetime numbers against Waino. He seems to have had his number with four long balls and a double. He has also drawn one walk against Wainwright making his on base percentage an even .500 against the longtime Cardinals hurler.

On the Cubs side, we learned Thursday that Trevor Williams will make his return to the Chicago starting rotation. Of course, we lost Williams to an emergency appendectomy earlier this year, so getting him back given the current mix of arms is critical. He’ll take the start for what was supposed to be Jake Arrieta’s final start of the first half. After his latest debacle, Arrieta hit the IL with what’s being called a hamstring strain.

Certainly a good spot for a revenge game, the Cubs simply must take this series. All signs point to sellers at the deadline unless somehow this offense can click on all cylinders and give us some kind of hope that if we can patch up the rotation then they just might be OK. Unfortunately, even with the offense at its most potent, the reality is this team seems to be at the point of no return regardless of how many runs they score.

I do like the Cubs offense to continue to breathe life into the Wrigley faithful this weekend. When watching the team right now, I will be looking for that that sense of urgency like I saw in games two and three against Philly this week. Baseball players read the stats too. They read the comments. They know it’s crunch time. Here’s to hoping this Cubs’ core doesn’t lay down without a fight. Let’s see what the boys in blue have in store for us this weekend. Go Cubs.