Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox preview, Sunday 9/27, 2:10 CT

The Cubs have called up Brailyn Marquez. Details here.

Last day of the regular season notes:

• GRANDPA: David Ross is the seventh Cubs manager to lead the team to at least a division title in his first year as manager. The other six: Albert Spalding (1876), Charlie Grimm (took over in middle of 1932), Gabby Hartnett (took over in middle of 1938), Jim Frey (1984), Dusty Baker (2003) and Lou Piniella (2007). (If you think I left Joe Maddon out, remember that the Cubs were a wild-card team in 2015, not the division winner.)
• LOADING THE BASES: Kris Bryant hit the team’s second grand slam of the season in Saturday’s game. The other one was hit by Kyle Schwarber August 30 in Cincinnati. The 70 plate appearances the Cubs have with the bases loaded this season ranks fourth in the majors behind the Mets (78), Phillies (75) and Yankees (75). They have hit .226/.257/.339 (14-for-62) with 22 strikeouts with the bags jammed. The .596 OPS ranks 24th in MLB.
• RELEASE THE KRAKEN: In his last 14 games since August 14, Craig Kimbrel has a 1.42 ERA and held opponents to a .098 average (4-for-41), a .245 OBP, a .098 slugging mark and a .342 OPS. During this span Kimbrel has 26 strikeouts, a ratio of 18.47 strikeouts per nine innings.
• THE RECORD BOOK: The three strikeouts Jon Lester recorded in Saturday’s game gave him 2,397 career strikeouts, tying Kevin Brown for 49th on MLB’s all-time list

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Insert “other split squad” joke here.

White Sox lineup:

Adbert Alzolay, RHP vs. Reynaldo Lopez, RHP

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

In his last outing, a four-inning relief stint against the Pirates September 22, Adbert Alzolay finally showed the talent we all thought he had. He allowed two hits, one run and struck out seven.

A lot of that came from a new pitch Alzolay said he had recently mastered, a slider.

Look at this pitch (it says “curveball,” but it’s really a slider:

Here’s a visualization of his pitches:

If he can keep that up, the Cubs have found themselves a starter. Alzolay has never faced the White Sox; the only player on their roster who has faced them is Yasmani Grandal (0-for-1). Perhaps that’ll be to his advantage today.

Reynaldo Lopez faced the Cubs August 22 at Wrigley Field. He threw 3⅓ innings and allowed only one hit, but also hit a batter and Victor Caratini hit a two-run double off him.

He’s been pretty good in September: four starts, 17 innings, 2.65 ERA, 1.176 WHIP. He has allowed five home runs in those four starts, though. Current Cubs are 8-for-50 (.160) against Lopez with no home runs and 16 strikeouts.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on NBC Sports Chicago with the Sox announcers, and on TBS outside the Cubs and White Sox market territories (announcers: Joe Simpson and Ron Darling).

Radio broadcasts: 670 The Score, Sirius XM radio (click for channel), Cubs radio affiliates

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox. If you do go there to interact with White Sox 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.