Chicago Cubs vs. Houston Astros preview, Sunday 5/24, 1:20 CT

Sunday notes… LET’S KEEP IT THIS WAY: The Cubs have not been swept at home by the Astros since May 30-June 1, 2011, when they lost by 12-7, 7-3 and 2-1. This is the just the eighth series between the teams at Wrigley Field since then. In one, 2012, the Cubs lost the first two games, both by 3-0, the

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Sunday notes…

LET’S KEEP IT THIS WAY: The Cubs have not been swept at home by the Astros since May 30-June 1, 2011, when they lost by 12-7, 7-3 and 2-1. This is the just the eighth series between the teams at Wrigley Field since then. In one, 2012, the Cubs lost the first two games, both by 3-0, then won the third, 5-4. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
THE SALVAGE GAME: This is the fourth series of the season in which the Cubs lost the first two games. They avoided sweeps in the first two, at home vs. the Pirates on April 12 and at Atlanta on May 14. They lost the finale to the Brewers on Wednesday. The Cubs are 10-6 in all third games this season, better than their 9-8 in second games and 8-9 in first games. They are 2-0 in fourth games. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

SCORING FIRST — AND NOT: In each of their last five losses, the Cubs’ opponent scored first. Earlier this year, the Cubs gave up the first run in six straight games, winning three. They also fell behind to begin four consecutive games and won them all. The Cubs are 11-18 when their opponent scores first, including 8-10 at home — where they are 10-0 when they have scored first. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
TRY NOT TO SUCK: The Cubs’ last winless home stand of at least six games was Sept. 21-26, 2021, when they lost twice to the Twins and four times to the Cardinals. They were outscored in those games by 46-25. In their five losses this week, they have been outscored, 26-7. From Aug. 6-12, 2021, the Cubs dropped seven straight in a home stand, three to the White Sox and four to the Brewers. They were outscored, 58-18, including 10-0 and 17-4 in the final two games. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Jon Lieber throws a one-hit, complete-game shutout over the Reds at Wrigley Field, the only hit a one-out single by Juan Castro in the sixth. He throws only 78 pitches and faces the minimum 27 batters, as the single and a one-out walk in the ninth were both erased by double plays. The Cubs won the game 3-0 in a game time of one hour, 48 minutes, though a rain delay of one hour, 37 minutes had the game ending about 4:45 p.m. It happened 25 years ago today, Thursday, May 24, 2001.

Cubs lineup:

Astros lineup:

Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Peter Lambert, RHP

Shōta Imanaga’s last start was… not up to his previous efforts this year. The Brewers hit him hard.

Hopefully, that will not be the case this afternoon. He’s been better in day games (2.62 ERA, six starts, two HR in 34.1 innings) than

night games (4.44 ERA, four starts, five HR in 24.1 innings), so maybe that will help.

He has never faced the Astros, and of current Astros, only Christian Vazquez (0-for-4) and Christian Walker (0-for-2) have faced him. Too bad the Astros don’t have any other guys named Christian.

Peter Lambert’s entire career was with the Rockies, until this year, when he signed with the Astros as a free agent. They released him at the end of Spring Training, then re-signed him, and he’s made six pretty decent starts (3.57 ERA, 1.075 WHIP, only two HR allowed in 35.1 innings), compared to a 6.28 ERA in 74 games (35 starts) with Colorado. Guess he just had to get out of Coors Field.

Lambert made his MLB debut against the Cubs at Wrigley Field June 6, 2019 and threw seven innings, allowing one run. Then his second start was also vs. the Cubs, five days later at Coors Field, where he allowed one run in five innings. Those, plus a two-inning relief outing in 2024, are his only career appearances against the Cubs. Alex Bregman and Michael Conforto have homered previously off him.

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