Chicago Cubs vs. Cleveland preview, Monday 6/21, 7:05 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Monday notes...

• THE PITCHING STAFF: Cubs pitching has a 2.77 ERA (61 earned runs in 198 innings) in the team’s last 22 home games.
• ON THE OTHER HAND: Over those same 22 home games, Cubs hitters have batted .240 (163-for-679) and have averaged 4.6 runs per game.
• THE LONG BALL: The Cubs rank third in the NL with 97 homers, behind the Giants (107) and Braves (99).
• THE KRAKEN: Craig Kimbrel has limited opponents to a .102 average (10-for-98), a .176 OBP and a .329 OPS this season. He’s walked nine and struck out 49 in 29⅓ innings, good for an average of 15 strikeouts per nine innings. Overall he’s faced 108 batters; the 49 strikeouts is 45.4 percent of all hitters he’s faced.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Cleveland lineup:

Adbert Alzolay, RHP vs. Aaron Civale, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

I’m going to discount Adbert Alzolay’s most recent start because clearly, he was affected during that June 7 start in San Diego by the blister that forced him to the injured list.

In his six starts previous to that: 2.94 ERA, 0.921 WHIP, just six walks and 35 strikeouts in 33⅔ innings, .210 opponents BA.

Alzolay faced Cleveland May 11 at Progressive Field. He threw six innings, allowed three runs, issued no walks and struck out six. Cesar Hernandez (two-run homer) and Jose Ramirez (solo homer) accounted for all the runs off Adbert that night. So... keep the ball in the ballpark and he should be OK.

Aaron Civale leads MLB in pitcher wins (10), for whatever that’s worth. He also leads the AL in innings (93).

He’s been hit pretty hard in his last four starts: 4.68 ERA, 1.240 WHIP, six home runs in 24 innings. On the other hand, one of those four starts was eight one-hit innings against the Mariners June 11, with 11 strikeouts.

Civale has faced the Cubs once: September 16, 2020 at Wrigley Field. He allowed three runs in six innings. Granted, one start in the abbreviated 2020 season doesn’t tell us much.

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

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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.