Chicago Cubs vs. Miami Marlins preview, Tuesday 9/22, 6:40 CT

Alex Bregman update: Here Tuesday notes… STACKING WINS: The Cubs have won three consecutive series for the first time since July 7-19 and four of five for the first time since Aug. 3-19. They are 26-23-3 in all series this year, including 12-11-2 at home. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53) BEATING THE GOOD TE

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Alex Bregman update: Here

Tuesday notes…

STACKING WINS: The Cubs have won three consecutive series for the first time since July 7-19 and four of five for the first time since Aug. 3-19. They are 26-23-3 in all series this year, including 12-11-2 at home. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
BEATING THE GOOD TEAMS: The Cubs are 41-34 against teams that had a winning record going into games. At home, they are 25-14. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

FOUR IS THE NUMBER OF THE COUNTING: The Cubs have scored at least four runs in their last four games and in eight of their last 10. They have scored a total of 61 runs, an average of 6.10. For the season, their average is 5.35. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
PCA WATCH: Pete Crow-Armstrong needs five home runs to reach 50, a milestone reached only by two Cubs: Sammy Sosa, four times (66, 64, 63 and 50), and Hack Wilson, once (56). PCA homered five times in six games June 15-23, three times in overlapping spans Aug. 15-23 and four times in overlapping spans Aug. 24-30. He hit six in five games Aug. 29-Sept. 3. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
RUN WATCH: With their nine runs scored Sunday, the Cubs are at 835 runs scored for the season with six games remaining. Cubs teams have scored more runs than that just twice in a season since 1930: 847 in 1935 and 855 in 2008, so this year’s Cubs need just 21 runs over the six remaining games to become the second-highest scoring Cubs club in the Modern Era.

Cubs lineup:

Marlins lineup:

Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Janson Junk, RHP

This year is a tale of five Shōtas:

First nine starts: 2.32 ERA, 0.902 WHIP, only 5 HR in 54.1 innings Next seven starts: 7.41 ERA, 1.274 WHIP, 15 (!) HR in 37.2 innings Next seven starts: 1.77 ERA, 1.180 WHIP, only 5 HR in 40.2 innings Next four starts: 7.13 ERA, 1.528

WHIP, 8 (!) HR in 17.2 (!) innings Next three starts: 2.00 ERA, 0.778 WHIP, only 1 HR in 18 innings

Three of those guys are Cy Young candidates. The other two are DFA candidates. Which one will we get tonight?

The good news, perhaps, is that one of the most recent three starts was Sept. 4 against the Marlins in Miami, where he held them to three hits and one run, with no home runs. Just do that again, Shōta.

Janson Junk was Imanaga’s opponent in that Sept. 4 game and he held the Cubs to three hits and one run in five innings. The Cubs won the game off the Marlins bullpen.

Since then Junk has not gone past the third inning in two starts, one vs. the Mets (who scored eight runs off him) and one vs. the Diamondbacks, who he held to just one run. It appears he’s on a pitch limit of about 75 or so, as he hasn’t thrown more than that in about a month. So the patient Cubs should try to wait him out with walks and get him out early.

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