Chicago Cubs vs. Cleveland Guardians preview, Saturday 4/4, 6:15 CT

Today’s expected roster move, Cade Horton to the IL and Riley Martin called up, has not been officially announced yet by the Cubs. When it is, I’ll have a separate post on the front page. Saturday notes… STREAKING THE WRONG WAY: The Cubs have lost six straight games at Cleveland: two in 2021, three

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What is the story about?

Today’s expected roster move, Cade Horton to the IL and Riley Martin called up, has not been officially announced yet by the Cubs. When it is, I’ll have a separate post on the front page.

Saturday notes…

STREAKING THE WRONG WAY: The Cubs have lost six straight games at Cleveland: two in 2021, three in 2024 and yesterday. That is their second-longest losing streak at any American League city. They lost eight in a row at New York in 2005-22 (12 including two each in the 1932 and 1938 World Series). They dropped five in a row at Detroit (2001-15), Minnesota (2006-12) and Toronto (2014-22). (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

THE NICO FILES: Nico Hoerner has a six-game on-base streak in which he is batting .350/.462/.550 (7-for-20) with four doubles, four stolen bases and five walks. He continues to lead MLB with the four steals.
STEALING BASES: The Cubs have eight steals, ranking fourth in MLB, and have not yet had a runner thrown out trying to stea.
TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Jake Arrieta threw seven shutout innings and the Cubs won 9-0 on Opening Day in Anaheim. It happened 10 years ago today, Monday, April 4, 2016.

Cubs lineup:

Guardians lineup:

Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Slade Cecconi, RHP

Shōta Imanaga’s first 2026 start wasn’t terrible… but it wasn’t all that good, either. He allowed one home run, unfortunately that came with two men on base. Hopefully he can keep the ball in the ballpark this evening. He did strike out seven Nationals in that first outing.

His outing last year against the Guardians, July 2, 2025 at Wrigley Field, was a similar game to his first start this year, except with more home runs (three solo homers). So, again, keeping the ball in the yard would be the key to his success, I’d think.

You’ll note in the graphic below that he averaged 92.1 miles per hour on his fastball in his first start this year. That’s up significantly from last year’s 90.8 miles per hour. If he can maintain that, this should be a good year for Shōta.

Slade Cecconi got torched by the Mariners in his first 2026 start last Sunday in Seattle — 4.1 innings, six runs allowed. He threw 93 pitches and, as noted, did not finish the fifth inning.

He has never faced the Cubs. Only two Cubs — Alex Bregman (0-for-4) and Michael Conforto (0-for-3) have ever faced him.

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Here is the weather forecast for the Cleveland area.

Today’s game is on Fox-TV (regional — coverage map, scroll to the bottom of that link for the map). A reminder that if you have MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings, you can watch this game via those services even if it’s not on the Fox-TV affiliate in your market. Fox announcers: Adam Amin and John Smoltz.

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

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Guardians site Covering The Corner. If you do go there to interact with Guardians 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.