Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves preview, Wednesday 4/28, 6:20 CT

Wednesday notes:

• NOT ALONE: The Cubs (10-13) are not the only team that had hopes of contending that’s sitting in last place as of today. The Nationals (8-12) are last in the NL East. The Yankees (10-13) are last in the AL East. And the Twins (7-15) are not only last in the AL Central, they are seven games out of first place.
• THE GOOD NEWS: The Cubs rank tied for sixth in MLB with 30 home runs.
• THE BAD NEWS: The Cubs rank 28th in team ERA, 4.61. On the other hand, tonight’s opponent, the Braves, ranks 29th (4.67).
• THE WORSE NEWS: The Cubs are dead last in MLB in team BA, .206, and in walks by pitchers (110).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Braves lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Huascar Ynoa, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

If only Kyle Hendricks could face the Brewers every start:

2021 vs. Milwaukee: 12 IP, 0.75 ERA, 1.000 WHIP, two walks, 12 strikeouts
2021 vs. other teams: 7 IP, 12.86 ERA, 2.423 WHIP, five home runs allowed

That’s like two entirely different pitchers. One of those bad games, of course, was April 18 vs. the Braves, where Kyle served up four home runs in the first inning. BCB’s Sara Sanchez took a deeper dive into Kyle’s home run problems earlier today, worth reading if you haven’t already.

Needless to say, we hope tonight’s outing will be much better.

The Cubs absolutely crushed Huascar Ynoa when they faced him April 17 at Wrigley Field. He allowed six runs in four innings, including three home runs, two by Willson Contreras, one by Javier Baez. The Cubs eventually won 13-4.

I’ll take another one just like that one, please.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on FS1 (no blackouts).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Braves site Talking Chop. If you do go there to interact with Braves 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 2021 Game Thread procedure will be a bit different than previous years. It will be similar to what we’ve used for Spring Training.

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 post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, 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 the overflow thread 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 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.