Chicago Cubs vs. Detroit Tigers preview, Friday 5/14, 6:10 CT

Today’s roster moves: Here

Friday notes...

• THOSE ONE-RUN GAMES: The Cubs have played seven straight one-run games (currently 4-3 on that run) for the first time since August 23-30, 1996, when the team was involved in eight consecutive one-run contests (Cubs went 3-5). The franchise record for consecutive one-run games is nine, from June 24-July 4, 1906 (Cubs went 7-2).
• RISP-Y BUSINESS: The Cubs had 20 hits in the two-game Cleveland series and batted .278 (20-for-72) overall. As you probably heard, the Cubs had just two hits in 27 at-bats with runners in scoring position (.074). That means they hit 18-for-45 (.400) in all other situations in the two games at Cleveland.
• ABOUT THE DH: Cubs designated hitters have batted .250 (236-for-945) with 42 home runs and 151 RBI in 248 games all-time. Last year, when MLB had the universal DH, Cubs DHs batted .192 (38-for-198) with five homers and 27 RBI in the 60-game season.
• JOC POP: Joc Pederson has three straight multi-hit games and has done that in four of his last five. His career high is four straight, done twice previously, last on May 24-27, 2019.

Cubs lineup:

Tigers lineup:

Also for this series (time listed is ET):

Jake Arrieta, RHP vs. Tarik Skubal, LHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Jake Arrieta returns from the injured list to make his first start in two weeks. Hopefully, everything’s 100 percent and he can return to what he was doing over his first five outings.

Jake last faced the Tigers June 10, 2015, which is largely irrelevant because only one current Tiger is left from that team. Amusing to read that boxscore, though.

Cabrera is 3-for-12 with a homer vs. Jake, and the only other current Tiger who’s ever faced him is Jonathan Schoop (1-for-8).

Tarik Skubal was Detroit’s ninth-round pick in 2018 out of Seattle University. He is the only player selected in that round to play in MLB.

So far, the results are not great. He’s made 15 career appearances (12 starts) between last year and this year, with a 5.64 ERA and 1.390 WHIP and a fairly high walk rate this year (5.3 per nine innings). His last start, May 7 against the Twins, was pretty good (five innings, two runs, eight strikeouts). Per Fangraphs he’s mostly a fastball/slider guy (about 77 percent of his pitches) with the fastball averaging 94.

He has never faced the Cubs or anyone on the current Cubs roster. That’s sometimes an advantage for a younger pitcher like this.

On the other hand, the Cubs have been pretty good vs. LH starters this year at 7-3.

So, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee.

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 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.