Today’s roster move: Here
Saturday notes:
- TIME TO WIN ONE, GUYS: This is just the seventh of the Cubs’ 51 series in which they lost the first two games. There was no third game after the first, March 18-19 vs. the Dodgers in Tokyo. The Cubs won the third game of the next four series — at St. Louis, Minnesota and Milwaukee, then at home vs. the Reds. They lost the third game at San Francisco on Aug. 28, the only time they have been swept in a series of at least three games. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- MAGIC NUMBER: The Cubs’ magic number to clinch the top wild-card spot over the Padres dropped to 4 after the Padres’ loss Friday. Thus if the Cubs go 4-4 in their eight remaining games, they’ll host the wild-card series regardless of what the Padres do. If for any reason a tiebreaker is needed, it will work this way. The Cubs and Padres split their season series, so the tiebreaker between them is the record within the team’s division. The Padres are 29-20 vs. NL West teams with three games remaining (three vs. D-backs at home). The Cubs are 27-20 vs. NL Central teams with five games remaining (two vs. Reds on the road, three vs. Cardinals at home). If the teams are still tied after that, the next tiebreaker is the team’s record against other teams in their own league.
- HAPP-ENINGS: Ian Happ, last 30 games since Aug. 17: .312/.424/.587 (34-for-109) with nine doubles, seven home runs, 19 RBI, 21 walks and 20 runs scored.
- THIS DAY IN CUBS HISTORY: The Cubs clinch the NL Central title with a 5-4 win over the Cardinals at Wrigley Field. It happened 17 years ago today, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008.
Cubs lineup:
Reds lineup:
Javier Assad, RHP vs. Zack Littell, RHP
Javier Assad is pitching on five days’ rest after throwing two innings and 46 pitches against the Rays last Sunday. Before that he hadn’t thrown in nine days following an 81-pitch start against the Nationals Sept. 5.
So he should be pretty well rested for this one, the purpose
of which appears to be to give Cade Horton and Matthew Boyd an extra day of rest.
He hasn’t started against the Reds since May 2024. A few of the Reds hit him well last year, notably Elly De La Cruz (3-for-11, a home run).
The Reds traded for Zack Littell at the deadline and his first start as a Red was against the Cubs, Aug. 5 at Wrigley Field. He allowed three hits and one run in seven innings, striking out eight. That’s really good! The rest of his Reds time… not so much. In seven starts since then: 5.23 ERA, 1.226 WHIP, seven home runs in 31 innings. Six of those seven home runs were allowed in 17.1 innings at GABP so… Ian Happ, come on down!
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Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here.
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Reds site Red Reporter. If you do go there to interact with Reds 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 2025 Game Thread procedure will be identical to last year’s.
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.
