Wednesday notes…
- GOING FOR THE SWEEP, PART 1: This is the 18th of the Cubs’ 60 regular-season series against the White Sox in which they won the first two games. There was a third game in 10 of the previous series. The Cubs won five and lost five. The Cubs have won eight straight at home vs. the Sox: the final game of 2023, both played in 2024, three last year and the last two nights. Their previous longest home streak in the rivalry had been only four games. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- GOING FOR THE SWEEP, PART 2: This is the 13th of the Cubs’ 42 series in which they have won the first two games. They won the third game as well in seven series, most recently Aug. 3-5 at home vs. the Dodgers, and lost it in five, including last week at Washington. The win over the Dodgers completed their fourth three-game sweep. The others were over the Diamondbacks, Mets and Padres, all at home. They won a fourth game, too, at home vs. the Phillies and Pirates and at New York vs. the Mets. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- IN THE SUNSHINE: The Cubs are only 27-26 in day games, far worse than their 46=27 at night. They finished last season 43-32 in sunshine. They are 17-12 in day games at home, including 10-5 in day games following night games. They were 29-20 and 7-8 a year ago. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- PCA! PCA! PCA!: Pete Crow-Armstrong, 17 games in August: .278/.400/.611 (19-for-69) with four doubles, a triple, seven home runs, 16 RBI, 13 walks, 19 runs scored and five stolen bases (with no caught stealing).
Cubs lineup:
White Sox lineup:
Clay Holmes, RHP vs. Sean Newcomb, LHP
Clay Holmes was lights-out in his last start, last Friday against the Cardinals: 6.2 innings, one hit, one walk, 11 ground-ball outs.
The last time he faced the White Sox was May 26, 2025 at Citi Field and he had a similar outing: 5.2 innings, four hits, one run. Many of those White Sox aren’t on the team anymore and current Sox are a small
sample size 3-for-18 against Holmes.
Just keep those ground balls coming.
Once again, the White Sox appear to be using an opener, this time Sean Newcomb. His last outing was Aug. 16 against the Tigers, when he was used to close things, posting his fourth save. He also faced the Tigers as an opener Aug. 14 in Detroit, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings. He hasn’t thrown more than 33 pitches in an outing since June, so expect at most two innings here.
He threw two scoreless innings against the Cubs May 17 at Rate Field and has generally been effective this year, posting a 2.51 ERA and 1.103 WHIP in 46 games covering 68 innings.
You might remember, or choose to forget, Newcomb’s 17 games with the Cubs in 2022, when he posted a 9.33 ERA and allowed seven home runs in 22.2 innings.
The last time Newcomb was an opener, José Urquidy was the “bulk guy,” and that’s the last time Urquidy pitched (Aug. 14), so I’d expect that to happen again today. Fun fact: Urquidy was supposed to come to the Cubs in 2022 from the Astros in a trade for Willson Contreras, but Astros owner Jim Crane personally blocked the deal that had already been agreed to by the teams.
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Here is the weather forecast for the area around Wrigley Field.
Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. It’s also on CHSN and WCIU-Ch. 26 with the Sox announcers.
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
MLB.com Gameday
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox. If you do go there to interact with Sox 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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