The Cubs open a three-game series against a tough team from the A.L. East.
Friday notes… All of today’s notes are courtesy BCB’s JohnW53.
- A FRANCHISE MILESTONE: Today’s game will be the Cubs’ 22,000th regular-season contest in the National League. That is the most games played by any team. The Braves are second, with 21,962. They are the only other active team that was a founding member of the NL in 1876. The Cardinals and Reds both have played 21,584. The Dodgers have played the fewest of the four other pre-expansion teams, 21,384. The Tigers have played the most among AL teams, 19,079.
- MORE ON CUBS GAMES PLAYED: The Cubs have played 11,086 games at home and 10,914 on the road. They have won 11,193, lost 10,646 and tied 161, a winning percentage of .512. At home, they are 6,140-4,869-77, .557. On the road, they are 5,053-5,777-84, .467. The Cubs have played 8,434 games at Wrigley Field, where they are 4,481-3,921-31, .533.
- AND ABOUT CUBS PLAYERS: The Cubs have used 2,217 different players. Ernie Banks (2,528), Cap Anson (2,277) and Billy Williams (2,213) played in more than 10 percent of all the Cubs’ games. 382 played in fewer than 10 total games and 110 more played exactly one. The Cubs have hit 14,892 home runs among 197,323 hits (9 per game) They have scored 101,184 runs (4.6 per game) while allowing 97,813 (4.4 per game). Their batting average is .262. Their ERA is 3.69.
Here are today’s particulars.
Cubs lineup:
Orioles lineup:
Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Cole Irvin, LHP
Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Kyle Hendricks pitched one of the best games of his career last time out, last Saturday in San Francisco. He’s slowly beginning to resemble the Professor of old.
He has faced the Orioles only once in his career, and that was nine years ago, so completely irrelevant to today. Most current Orioles either haven’t faced him or have had few PA against him, but he has a long track record vs. Adam Frazier, from Frazier’s time in Pittsburgh, and Frazier has hammered him: .448 (13-for-29), two doubles, two home runs, three walks.
So hold Frazier down and this could be a good game for The Professor.
The Orioles acquired Cole Irvin by trade from the A’s last offseason. He made three starts in April that were pretty bad, was sent to Triple-A Norfolk, was recalled for one appearance in May, then sent down again and just called up again last week. He’s made one start since then and it was pretty good, but consider that it was against the Royals, who have been awful for almost a month.
Irvin has one career start vs. the Cubs. It came May 22, 2019 at Wrigley Field, but exactly zero of the Cubs who played in that game are still on the team, so… again, irrelevant.
The current Cub who has hit him best is Trey Mancini (.333, 4-for-12, a home run), for whatever that’s worth.
The Cubs are 11-9 vs. LH starters this year and their OPS is about 60 points higher vs. LHP compared to RHP.
Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Orioles market territories).
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
MLB.com Gameday
Baseball-reference.com game preview
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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.
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