Chicago Cubs vs. Detroit Tigers preview, Monday 8/24, 6:10 CT

News!

The Cubs have 33 games remaining entering tonight’s action: 13 at home and 20 on the road. Because of the three games vs. the Cardinals in St. Louis that were relocated to Wrigley Field, the Cubs will have 33 home games this year, 27 road games.

So, they’re going to have to be road warriors to keep up the pace. So far, they’re 5-2 on the road, which includes winning two of three in Cincinnati, sweeping a pair in Cleveland, and splitting two in Kansas City.

All of the teams the Cubs face on this trip have losing records at home, beginning with the Tigers, who are 4-9 in Comerica Park this year.

This is all good. Now they just have to deliver.

Also, Yu Darvish continues to be awesome:

Monday notes:

• MILESTONE TIME: The Cubs are one win away from reaching 11,000 regular season victories in franchise history. At 10,999 wins all-time, the franchise is second behind the New York/San Francisco Giants (11,179 all-time wins). BCBer JohnW53 will have more details in the comments.
• MAKING THE MOST OF WHAT YOU HAVE: Sunday’s win over the White Sox was already the Cubs’ third this season in which they scored two or fewer runs in a game (also August 2 vs. the Pirates, 2-1, and August 3 vs. the Royals, 2-0). The team’s three victories with two or fewer runs are tops in the N.L.
• SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE: The Cubs are 6-3 vs. American League teams so far this year and the Tigers are 6-3 vs. National League teams.
• IT’S ALL ABOUT THAT BASE: Cubs hitters rank third in the N.L. and fifth in the majors with a .333 on-base percentage behind only the Mets (.356), Yankees (.344), Phillies (.342) and Rays (.334).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Tigers lineup:

Alec Mills, RHP vs. Casey Mize, RHP

Alec Mills’ first two starts this year were very good, leading to him being dubbed the “Adjunct Professor,” as his style is similar to Kyle Hendricks.

A remedial class or two might be good for Mills after his last two starts, in which he got hit hard. Don’t look. Seriously. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Mills has never faced the Tigers or anyone on their roster. So maybe that’ll work to his, and the Cubs’, advantage tonight.

Casey Mize was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft, the same first round where the Cubs chose Nico Hoerner. He’s been a Top 20 MLB prospect each of the last two years and dominated every minor-league level where he’s pitched.

He is making his second MLB start tonight. The first was against the hot White Sox, and you can imagine how that went after seeing the Sox this past weekend. Although, Mize only allowed one home run. Maybe Cubs starters should take notes.

Like Mills, Mize has never faced tonight’s opponent or anyone on the Cubs active roster.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here is a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on FS1 (no blackouts). FS1 is picking up the Fox Sports Detroit broadcast with announcers Matt Shepard, Jack Morris and Trevor Thompson.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Tigers site Bless You Boys. If you do go there to interact with Tigers 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 2020 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, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week/Date) game threads.” It will contain every thread related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

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.