Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati Reds preview, Tuesday 7/16, 7:05 CT

Stop this guy and you’ve stopped the Reds, for the most part:

Those numbers are a bit lower now since the Cubs did retire Suarez in his other three PA Monday night. Still... there’s the guy you need to get out on this team.

Notes:

• Jason Heyward continued his hot hitting Monday with a 2-for-4 night. Since June 22: .391/.426/.734 (25-for-64) with five doubles, a triple and five home runs. On the season, his .835 OPS is exceeded only by the .849 he posted his rookie year.
• Kyle Schwarber’s home run Monday was his 20th of the year, putting him in this elite group:

• Anthony Rizzo is on a seven-game hitting streak in which he’s batting .462/.531/.692 (12-for-26) with four doubles and a triple. His two hits Monday gave him three straight multi-hit games.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Reds lineup:

Alec Mills, RHP vs. Anthony DeSclafani, RHP

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Alec Mills’ numbers at Iowa aren’t all that great. You can read more about that in Tim Huwe’s article from earlier today.

His last eight starts at Iowa: 2.72 ERA, 0.966 WHIP, .198 opponents BA. That’s pretty good.

On August 24, 2018, Mills started against the Reds at Wrigley Field and threw 5x solid innings, with one run allowed and eight strikeouts. This might very well be the reason he’s starting this game. Hopefully, the results tonight will be similar.

Anthony DeSclafani has made two starts against the Cubs this year. The Cubs hit him pretty well May 24 at Wrigley Field; June 30 at Cincinnati, he threw six shutout innings against them. He’s made only one start since that one in June; in that one he held the Indians to two runs in six innings, and overall since June 1: 3.06 ERA, 1.361 WHIP. Current Cubs are hitting .252 (34-for-135) against him with six home runs, two of those by Anthony Rizzo.

Today’s game is on WGN.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

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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.