Wednesday notes…
- ABOUT ALL THE LOSING: The Cubs’ losses Sunday at St. Louis and last night at Toronto marked the 13th time this season they have followed a win with back-to-back defeats. They won the next game 10 of the 12 previous times, including three times when all three games were on the road, as will be the case tonight. The Cubs’ two three-game losing streaks came May 6-9 (two at home vs. the Giants, then one at New York vs. the Mets) and June 22-24 (one at home vs. the Mariners, then two at St. Louis). The 29 other teams have had 106 three-game losing streaks and 114 more streaks of at least four games, for a total of 220, an average of 7.59 per team. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- THE SLUMP CONTINUES: Pete Crow-Armstrong, 10 games in August: .081/.105/.108 (3-for-37) with one double and 14 strikeouts.
- DESPITE THAT… PCA’s 31 doubles and 5.9 bWAR continue to lead all National League players.
- ABOUT TONIGHT’S STARTER: Cade Horton is the lone major league qualified starting pitcher to have not allowed a run since July 12. Horton and Paul Skenes are the only major league pitchers since June 1with six scoreless starts of at least five innings. More on Horton below.
Here are today’s particulars.
Cubs lineup:
Blue Jays lineup:
Cade Horton, RHP vs. Kevin Gausman, RHP
Cade Horton’s 23.2 inning scoreless streak is a record for Cubs rookies.
During the streak, in addition to allowing no runs, he’s given up 10 hits and seven walks (0.718 WHIP) and struck out 16. As I have mentioned earlier, Horton’s K rate so far in MLB
has been quite a bit lower than his K rate in the minors. It’s not velocity — his fastball is averaging nearly 96 miles per hour. I think the K’s will come.
Maybe starting tonight. Horton has never faced the Blue Jays or anyone on their active roster.
Kevin Gausman is in his 13th MLB season. That’s long enough ago that one of his teammates his rookie year (2013) was Brian Roberts, who made his MLB debut in 2001.
Gausman is having a typical year. His 2025 ERA is 3.85. His career ERA is 3.84. FIP? 3.68. Career FIP? 3.62. Walk and strikeout rates, similarly, are very close to career norms.
He hasn’t faced the Cubs since 2022 and of current Cubs, Justin Turner has faced him the most (24 AB). That probably doesn’t mean much now.
He does have a 2.54 ERA over his last eight starts, so he’s been better lately.
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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.
