Chicago Cubs vs. Arizona Diamondbacks preview, Thursday 7/26, 1:20 CT

Thursday notes:

• The win Wednesday gives the Cubs a 32-18 record in day games. The Diamondbacks are 15-19 in games played in sunshine.
• The Cubs’ post-All-Star record since 2015 is 153-77. The .665 winning percentage is by far the best in the major leagues. The Indians are second at .612.
• Today is Anthony Rizzo’s 1,000th career game. 951 of those games are as a Cub. By the end of the 2018 season, Rizzo will rank 30th on the all-time Cubs list in games played.
• The Cubs continue to lead the National League in runs, runs per game, walks, batting average, on-base percentage and OPS.
• The Cubs’ 400 walks in 101 games is an average of 3.96 per game. That’s a pace for 642, which would be third in franchise history.
• The Cubs’ 511 runs in 101 games is an average of 5.06 per game. That’s a pace for 820. If the Cubs score 800+ runs this year, that would be three straight years of that many runs, the first time for a Cubs team doing that since 1929-30-31.

Happy 34th birthday to Brandon Morrow:

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Diamondbacks lineup:

Tyler Chatwood, RHP vs. Zack Godley, RHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler Chatwood. Well, I’ll just repeat what I said in the recap to his last start. If he had thrown 5⅓ innings and allowed six hits and one walk and one run, people would have probably said, “Hey, that’s not too bad.” But six walks and one hit and everyone’s all bent out of shape, even though the result (one run) was decent.

Generally, Chatwood’s WHIP has been too high this year. If he can keep the hits down even with too many walks, that’s... weird, but it would work out OK.

Chatwood made two starts and one relief appearance against the D-backs last year and posted a 3.21 ERA and 1.143 WHIP in 14 innings. That’s right, a 1.143 WHIP — six walks, but only 10 hits. Current members of the D-backs are hitting .259 (30-for-116) against Chatwood with two home runs... and 14 walks.

Zack Godley, as you might remember, was one of the minor leaguers sent to Arizona for Miguel Montero in December 2014. He had not pitched above Advanced-A ball at the time. No one thought he could make the big leagues and succeed as fast as he did. Godley had a good 2017, he’s been somewhat less good this year. In July he’s had two bad starts and two really good ones, so who knows.

Last year he faced the Cubs twice, throwing six shutout innings August 2 at Wrigley Field, allowing two runs in 5⅔ innings August 13 in Phoenix. (With four walks in the latter — maybe he can emulate Chatwood!)

No current Cub has more than six career AB vs. Godley, but Addison Russell has hit two homers off him.

Today’s game is on NBC Sports Chicago. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Chicago and Phoenix markets).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit. If you do go there to interact with D-backs 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 2018 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used during 2017. Here’s how it works.

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. The First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads will be published in that stream, as well as the recap. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post, and at the time I write the recap I will rename the stream “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads” so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread, all the overflow threads and recap in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in the game’s StoryStream as noted above.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at one hour, two hours and 2:45 after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Click here to buy Cubs tickets through SB Nation’s partner StubHub.