Friday notes…
- MILESTONE INCOMING: Today’s game will be the Cubs’ 500th against the Pirates since 1994, first season of the Central Division. The Cubs have a .561 winning percentage vs. the Pirates in that time span (280-219-1). They are below .500 against the four other teams that are, or were, in the division: .494 vs. the Brewers (since 1998), .484 vs. the Cardinals, .483 vs. the Reds and .458 vs. the Astros (in 1994-2012). The Cubs have winning records at home against four of the five: .580 vs. the Pirates, .575 vs. the Cardinals, .518 vs. the Brewers and .504 vs. the Reds. They were just .458 vs. the Astros. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- THE NICO FILES: Nico Hoerner, last seven games since April 1: .400/.531/.680 (10-for-25) with four doubles, a home run, seven RBI, five walks and two stolen bases. He also has an 11-game on-base streak.
- THAT OTHER LEAGUE: The Cubs are 5-4 vs. American League teams so far this year and have yet to play a team from the NL Central or NL West. Meanwhile, their division rivals, the Brewers, have played all 12 of their games to date vs. AL teams and have gone 8-4.
- TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: After Ray Burris gave up the lead run to the Phillies in the top of the ninth, Billy Williams hit a two-run single to give the Cubs a 7-6 walk-off win. It happened 52 years ago today, Wednesday, April 10, 1974.
The Cubs lineup was not available at posting time. Please check BCB social media for the Cubs lineup.
Pirates lineup:
Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Carmen Mlodzinski, RHP
Shōta Imanaga has made two starts this year. The first was just okay, the second, against the Guardians, was pretty good. Shōta has kind of lucked out with today’s forecast, because a chilly day with the wind blowing in should help keep the ball in the ballpark.
Career-wise, the Pirates are the team he’s dominated
most. In four career starts, he has a 0.35 ERA (one run, a solo homer by Tommy Pham last year, and he’s not on the Pirates now), a 0.731 WHIP and 23 strikeouts in 26 innings.
Keep that up, Shōta.
The Pirates have moved Carmen Mlodzinski back and forth from the bullpen to the rotation a few times in his career. This year, he’s apparently going to be a full-time starter.
He has thrown a lot of pitches this year —85 in his first start and 84 in the second — without finishing five innings in either of those outings. He has struck out 13 of the 41 hitters he’s faced, and that’s a good K rate. But he’s thrown too many pitches to succeed beyond that.
No Cubs batter has more than seven at-bats against him. Overall current Cubs are 15-for-48 (.312) against Mlodzinski with one home run (Miguel Amaya).
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Here is the weather forecast for the area around Wrigley Field.
Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout. If you do go there to interact with Pirates 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 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.
You’ll find the game preview, like this one, 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.
The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.
You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.
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