Tuesday notes:
- ROAD WARRIORS: One more win at Pittsburgh or Cincinnati this week will clinch a winning record on the road for the Cubs, as they are 40-35 following last night’s victory. They have not finished above .500 on the road in a full season since 2018, when they were 44-37 for the second straight year. In 2019 plus 2021-24, they were a combined 179-226, a winning percentage of .442. They were 15-12 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- MAGIC NUMBERS: The Cubs’ magic number to clinch a postseason spot is 2 and to clinch the top wild-card spot over the Padres, it’s 9. 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 later this week, all at home). The Cubs are 25-18 vs. NL Central teams with nine games remaining (two vs. Pirates and four 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.
- NICO’S STREAK CONTINUES: Nico Hoerner is on a 10-game hitting streak in which he is batting .436/.500/.692 (17-for-39) with five doubles, a triple, a home run, five walks, four stolen bases and 10 runs scored.
- THIS DAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Miguel Montero led off the bottom of the 10th with a walkoff homer and the Cubs defeated the Brewers 5-4. It happened nine years ago today, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016.
Cubs lineup:
Pirates lineup:
Cade Horton, RHP vs. Paul Skenes, RHP
Here are two stat lines, both since the All-Star break:
10 starts, 0.84 ERA, 0.788 WHIP, 2 HR allowed in 53.1 innings
10 starts, 1.74 ERA, 0.912 WHIP, 4 HR allowed in 57 innings
Now without looking it up, can you tell me which one of those lines belongs to Cade
Horton and which one belongs to Paul Skenes?
Okay, so you went and looked it up. But just in case you didn’t, the top line is Horton’s — he’s outpitched Skenes by a considerable margin since the All-Star break. The only real difference between the two is strikeout rate: Skenes has struck out 72 of 222 batters faced in that span, or 32.4 percent, while Horton has 46 K’s in 200 batters faced, or 23 percent.
Perhaps we can just bring back the old Kyle Hendricks slogan: “Horton just gets guys out.” More on Horton:
This is not the first matchup of these two pitchers. They also met June 13 at Wrigley Field. Skenes threw five shutout innings and struck out five. Horton threw 5.2 shutout innings and struck out four.
This is must-see TV tonight. Heck of a matchup.
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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
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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.
