Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets preview, Wednesday 8/28, 6:10 CT

The Brewers led the Cardinals 4-1 in the ninth inning of their game in Milwaukee at the time this preview posted. If the Brewers hang on and win, the Cardinals’ lead over the Cubs in the N.L. Central will be cut to 2½ games and the Cubs will have a chance to pick up another half-game with a win tonight.

Notes:

• THE CUBS STILL LOVE YOU, NEW YORK: The Cubs Tuesday night won their fifth straight game at Citi Field, their longest winning streak here since also winning five games in a row from August 17, 2014-July 2, 2015. The Cubs have never won more than five games in a row at Citi Field and last beat the Mets more than five times in a row in New York during a seven-game winning streak at Shea Stadium from May 22-September 18, 1991.
• ROAD WARRIORS: With a win tonight or tomorrow, the Cubs would secure their second straight road series victory, as the Cubs won two of three against Pittsburgh from August 16-18 to snap a 12-series road winless streak that dated to the middle of May. The last time the Cubs won consecutive road series was a three-series streak from April 15-May 1 (at Miami, at Arizona and at Seattle).
• THE PROFESSOR: Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks has posted a 2.93 ERA (219 earned runs in 672 innings) in 112 outings (111 starts) since the beginning of the 2016 campaign, one of only four National League starting pitchers with a sub-3.00 ERA in this time frame, joining Clayton Kershaw (2.38 ERA), Max Scherzer (2.63 ERA) and Jacob deGrom (2.67 ERA). Tonight’s opponent, Noah Syndergaard, ranks just beyond this list with a 3.08 ERA. More on Kyle below.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Mets lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Noah Syndergaard, RHP

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Hendricks, last two starts: 14 innings, six hits, one walk, one run. He seems back in a groove again — he’s allowed two or fewer runs in nine of 10 starts since returning from the injured list.

He has not faced the Mets since July 20, 2016 and most of the players from that game aren’t on the Mets anymore. The only current Mets who have more than a handful of at-bats against Kyle are Todd Frazier (3-for-12) and Wilson Ramos (2-for-12).

Kyle has issued just three walks over his last 30 innings and has an ERA of 3.00 in those five starts — and that includes the seven-run clunker against the Reds.

This is Kyle’s first start at Citi Field since June 30, 2015. He is 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA (one earned run in 13 innings) in two career starts there.

Noah Syndergaard, last eight starts: 1.82 ERA, 0.975 WHIP, .207 opponents BA. He had a bit of a rough start to this season (4.68 ERA before the All-Star break), but has been very good lately.

The last time he faced the Cubs was August 27, 2018 at Wrigley Field, and he allowed four runs in six innings. If the Cubs can do that tonight they have a pretty good chance of winning this game.

Current Cubs are hitting .277 (18-for-65) against Syndergaard with no home runs.

Today’s game is on NBC Sports Chicago.

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.