Wednesday notes…
- ENOUGH ALREADY: The Cubs are just the 20th team since 1901 to have double-digit winning and losing streaks in the same season. The Guardians were the previous club to do it, winning and losing 10 last season. The 2017 Dodgers, with 11 and 11, and 2008 Guardians, with 10 and 10, were the only other teams since 2000. The Cubs had done it once before, winning 10 and losing 12 in 1970. Their winning streak came before their losing streak, as it did this year. The Dodgers’ wins also came first. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- ALMOST ALWAYS BEHIND DURING THE STREAK: In their 10 losses, the Cubs scored first in only one, the second of the streak, on the South Side against the White Sox on May 17. They gave up the first run in the first inning of six games, the second inning of three and the third inning of one. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- TOO MANY HITS: The 15 hits allowed by the Cubs last night tied for their most this season. They gave up 15 on April 13, when they lost at Philadelphia, 13-7. The next night, they began the first of their two 10-game winning streaks. The Cubs are 4-12 when they have given up at least 10 hits, including 1-8 with at least 12. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: As noted in this post on The Feed, Javier Baéz pulled off perhaps his best El Mago stunt ever on this day, helping the Cubs to a 5-3 win over the Pirates, the fourth win of what would become a six-game winning streak. It happened five years ago today, Thursday, May 27, 2021. Here’s video of Javy’s magical play.
Cubs lineup:
Pirates lineup:
Jameson Taillon, RHP vs. Bubba Chandler, RHP
Jameson Taillon had another rough outing last Friday against the Astros, though he allowed only one home run instead of five. So, progress?
The Pirates hit him hard at Wrigley Field April 12, including three home runs, though he did strike out 10.
Last year Jamo threw six shutout innings against
the Pirates Sept. 15 at PNC Park. So, how about another one like that?
Bubba Chandler had a pretty good start to his 2026, but recently has begun to get hit hard. Over his last six starts: 6.00 ERA, 1.593 WHIP. The key for the Cubs might be his walks: Chandler leads MLB with 34 walks in 47 innings. Overall that’s a 16 percent walk rate, which is pretty high.
Be patient hitters tonight, Cubs. As you can see by the chart below, Chandler throws hard, but he doesn’t always know where the ball is going.
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Here is the weather forecast for the area around PNC Park.
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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