Chicago Cubs vs. Texas Rangers preview, Friday 5/8, 7:05 CT

Today’s roster move: Here Friday notes… STREAKING: A victory tonight will make 2026 just the fourth season since 1901 in which the Cubs enjoyed multiple double-digit winning streaks — and the first in 91 years. They won 14, 12, 10 and 10 in a row in 1906. They won 11 and 10 in 1910. They won 21 and

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Today’s roster move: Here

Friday notes…

STREAKING: A victory tonight will make 2026 just the fourth season since 1901 in which the Cubs enjoyed multiple double-digit winning streaks — and the first in 91 years. They won 14, 12, 10 and 10 in a row in 1906. They won 11 and 10 in 1910. They won 21 and 11 in 1935. The Cubs had one streak of at least 10 wins in six seasons before 1935 and have had one in 10 seasons since then, including their 10 in a row April 14-24 this year. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

LEADING OFF: The Cubs lost the first game of their first four home stands or road trips (home vs. Nationals, at Cleveland, home vs. Pirates, at Philadelphia). Since then, they have won the first game of the next three (home vs. Mets, at Los Angeles vs. Dodgers, home vs. Diamondbacks). (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
HAPP-ENINGS: Ian Happ has a 28-game on-base streak in which he is batting .269/.411/.510 (28-for-104) with five doubles, a triple, six home runs, 12 RBI, 22 walks and 24 runs scored.
TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Javier Báez’s 13th-inning walk-off homer gave the Cubs a 4-3 win over the Nationals at Wrigley Field. It was the seventh win in what was eventually an eight-game winning streak and improved the team’s record to 24-6. It happened 10 years ago today, Sunday, May 8, 2016. Here’s Javy’s blast:

Cubs lineup:

Rangers lineup:

Ben Brown, RHP vs. Kumar Rocker, RHP

This is Ben Brown’s first start of 2026. Given that he has maxed out at 50 pitches in a game this year — and that was on March 31 vs. the Angels — this is likely to be a short outing, maybe three innings tops. It’s possible that Javier Assad, who threw 17 pitches on Wednesday, could piggyback witb

Brown.

Brown has one career appearance against the Rangers, March 30, 2024 in Texas. You should not click on that link. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

As you can see by the chart below, Brown has developed a third pitch, which appears to have made him more effective this year.

Kumar Rocker was highly in demand out of Vanderbilt, so much so that he was drafted in the first round by the Mets in 2021, then went back into the draft the following year after the Mets tried to re-negotiate his deal after some injury concerns. He was taken in the first round again in 2022, by the Rangers.

Rocker’s MLB career to date has been injury-filled and not living up to his promise. Shoulder problems last year limited him to 14 starts. He was doing okay this year until his last outing, May 2 vs. the Tigers, when he got hit hard (seven hits, five runs in two innings).

He has never faced the Cubs or anyone on the team’s active roster.

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Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. It’s also on Peacock (streaming, Rangers broadcast, outside the Cubs and rangers market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Rangers site Lone Star Ball. If you do go there to interact with Rangers 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.

Discuss amongst yourselves.