Chicago Cubs @ St. Louis Cardinals – Series Preview (June 24-25): Overview, Game and Broadcast Info, Starting Pitchers, W2W4
The Cubs (36-38) continue to play excellent baseball of late, completing another sweep of the Pirates in Pittsburgh to move within two games of the .500 mark. Chicago has won 10 of their last 12 and they look to keep the good times rolling during a very unusual two–game series against the Cardinals in London this weekend.
The games will be played at a converted soccer stadium normally occupied by West Ham United football club. There is no word if Nathan “Wonder Kid” Shelley, Coach Beard, or Roy Kent will be in attendance or not.
Both teams were given two consecutive off days to make the trip, so the bullpens should be rested. St. Louis (31-44) needs a rested relief corps because their starting staff has been awful in 2023 with a 4.77 ERA that is 23rd in baseball. The offense has been pretty good, but not good enough to overcome that shaky pitching so far and they find themselves 9.5 games back of the first-place Reds.
Despite a slow start, Nolan Arenado is still producing home runs and Paul Goldschmidt is having another huge year, so the Cards certainly can still threaten with the bats. The Cubs also lost two of three to their rivals at Wrigley in May and have struggled mightily against them in the past couple of seasons.
The fact that these games are in a foreign country certainly adds an element of unpredictability. When the Yankees and the Red Sox played at this stadium in 2019, it was a Coors Field-style launching pad with huge offensive outputs. Hopefully, Chicago will be successful again and their fans won’t be left asking Sunday night: What’s all this then?
Game Time and Broadcast Info
- Saturday, June 24 at 12:10pm CT on FOX.
- Sunday, June 25 at 9:10am CT on ESPN.
Starting Pitchers
| Date | Pitcher | Age | T | ERA | W/L | FIP | K/BB |
| 6/24 | Justin Steele | 27 | L | 2.71 | 7-2 | 2.97 | 3.65 |
| Adam Wainwright | 41 | R | 5.56 | 3-1 | 4.85 | 1.85 | |
| 6/25 | Marcus Stroman | 32 | R | 2.28 | 9-4 | 3.34 | 2.44 |
| Jack Flaherty | 25 | R | 4.95 | 4-5 | 4.20 | 1.82 |
What to Watch For
- Steele looked pretty good in his return from the IL against the Orioles going five strong innings.
- Nico Hoerner tripled and hit a home run in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
- The game on Sunday starts at 9am Chicago time, the earliest start time for a Cubs game since they opened the season in Japan in the year 2000.
- It has been a rough year for Willson Contreras, who has a .662 OPS in his first season as a Cardinal.