Chicago Cubs vs. Philadelphia Phillies preview, Tuesday 5/21, 6:05 CT

Notes for Tuesday:

• After starting the season with 25 straight games without extra innings, five of the team’s last 20 games have needed extras before a resolution, including four of the team’s last 12 contests since May 8.
• Anthony Rizzo (3-for-5, double, RBI) tied a season-high with three hits (third time). He has seven multi-hit games in his last 17 games.
• Jason Heyward (2-for-4, walk, run) has consecutive multi-hit games for the first time this season. He’s 5-for-16 with five runs scored over his last four games.
• Yu Darvish leads the team with 62 strikeouts, including at least seven strikeouts in six of his last seven starts.
• Albert Almora Jr. (2-for-4, sacrifice bunt) is 9-for-20 with four multi-hit games in his last six games and over his last 22 games (16 starts) is hitting .347/.364/.600 (26-for-75) with seven doubles, four home runs and 15 runs. That .347 average since April 25 is sixth-best in the N.L. while the .600 slugging mark is tied for 11th.
• Kyle Schwarber has posted a .404 on-base percentage in his last 13 games since May 6, walking nearly as many times (13) as he’s struck out (14).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Phillies lineup:

Jose Quintana, LHP vs. Zach Eflin, RHP

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Jose Quintana has been significantly better at Wrigley Field this year (four starts, 2.36 ERA, one HR in 26⅔ innings) than on the road (5.11 ERA, six HR in 24⅔ innings), so it’s good that he’ll be making his next two starts in the Friendly Confines.

He made two starts against the Phillies last year and posted a 2.31 ERA and 0.771 WHIP with 17 strikeouts and no home runs in 11⅔ innings.

Two current Phillies have hit him well in small sample sizes: Andrew McCutchen (5-for-13) and Sean Rodriguez (4-for-10, a home run). Stop those guys and Q will probably have stopped the Phillies.

Zach Eflin has been the Phillies’ best starter this year, though the Brewers hit him pretty hard in his last outing.

In two starts vs. the Cubs last year he posted a 2.84 ERA and 1.342 WHIP with no home runs allowed in 12⅔ innings.

Kris Bryant is 6-for-10 against Eflin, so let’s hope KB continues his current hot hitting.

Today’s game is on WGN. It’s also on ESPN (no blackouts). ESPN announcers: Karl Ravech, Eduardo Perez and Tim Kurkjian.

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 Phillies site The Good Phight. If you do go there to interact with Phillies 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 2019 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used in previous years. 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.