Chicago Cubs vs. Miami Marlins preview, Friday 6/18, 7:05 CT

Friday notes...

• HANGING IN THERE: Thursday’s win in New York ended a stretch where the Cubs played 17 of 26 games away from Wrigley Field. They went 17-9 in that stretch (8-1 at home, 9-8 on the road).
• DEFEATING THE BEST: The Cubs have had a successful start to the 2021 season against some of the National League’s top teams. They are a combined 17-5 against the Mets (4-3), Cardinals (5-1), Padres (5-1) and Dodgers (3-0).
• THE KRAKEN: Craig Kimbrel, in his last 37 games since September 3, 2020, has posted a 0.50 ERA (two earned runs in 35⅔ innings). He has gone 20-for-22 in save opportunities and held opponents to a .109 BA (13-for-119), a .171 OBP, a .150 SLG and a .321 OPS over that period. Basically, Kimbrel over that span has made all MLB hitters hit like pitchers, who are hitting .114/.154/.145 in 2021. (And Kimbrel, as a closer, would never face a pitcher batting, teams would always PH for a pitcher in that situation.)
• WINNING THE CLOSE ONES: The Cubs are 21-14 in games decided by two or fewer runs this season.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

The Marlins lineup was not available at posting time. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Marlins lineup.

Zach Davies, RHP vs. Cody Poteet, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

After his horrific start to 2021, Zach Davies has been lights-out since the first of May. In that time frame: Nine starts, 1.86 ERA, 0.972 WHIP, just one home run in 48⅓ innings.

One member of the Marlins hits him particularly well — Starling Marte (.385, 10-for-26). Marte has been hot since he returned from a rib injury — .350/.443/.583 (21-for-60) with three home runs. So — keep Marte in check and this game could go well for Davies.

Cody Poteet has been on the injured list for a couple weeks with a knee issue. He's being reactivated to start today.

He was the fourth round pick of the Marlins in 2015 and made his MLB debut last month.

Per Fangraphs his fastball averages about 93, but he throws a fair amount of offspeed stuff as well.

Tonight will be his sixth major league start. He has never faced the Cubs or anyone on the Cubs active roster. You know what that usually means.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. Chris Myers will join Jim Deshaies in the Marquee booth today to call play-by-play.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Marlins site Fish Stripes. If you do go there to interact with Marlins 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.