Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers preview, Saturday 6/26, 6:15 CT

Saturday notes...

• SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THERE’S A CHANCE: If the Cubs can win the final two games of this series, they will win a set at Dodger Stadium for the first time since August 1-3, 2014, when they two of three games in L.A.
• AN ANNIVERSARY: Anthony Rizzo made his Cubs debut nine years ago today, on June 26, 2012, going 2-for-4 with a double and RBI. Rizzo’s 237 home runs with the Cubs rank seventh in franchise history, two behind Aramis Ramirez for sixth, and Rizzo’s 529 extra-base hits with the team rank 11th, three behind Phil Cavarretta (532) for 10th.
• LONG BALL NOTES: The Cubs have gone deep in 20 of their last 24 games since May 31 and have hit 41 total homers in that span, the most in the NL in that time frame and second in baseball behind the Astros (42).
• CLOSING TIME: Craig Kimbrel has limited opponents to a .099 BA (10-for-101), a .179 OBP and a .327 OPS this season. He has walked 10 and struck out 52 in 30⅓ innings, good for an average of 15.43 strikeouts per nine innings.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Dodgers lineup:

Alec Mills, RHP vs. Julio Urias, LHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Alec Mills has pitched much better at home this year (2.20 ERA) than on the road (8.10 ERA), so let’s ignore that for now and chalk it up to small sample sizes.

Encouraging was his last start, Sunday against the Marlins, where he threw five shutout innings and didn’t walk anyone.

The Dodgers will be a tougher task. Mills threw two innings against them May 5 at Wrigley Field, the 10th and 11th. With the placed runner, Mills allowed runs in both innings, both unearned. The Cubs wound up winning the game. It’s his only career appearance vs. L.A.

Julio Urias got off to a pretty good start this year, but his last five: 6.31 ERA, 1.675 WHIP, six home runs in 25⅔ innings.

The last time Urias faced the Cubs was in 2019, when he made two relief appearances against them, throwing five scoreless innings and allowing one hit and two walks.

The Cubs have hit lefthanders pretty well this year: .245/.318/.414. The .732 OPS vs. LHP ranks sixth among NL teams in 2021, and the Cubs are 13-6 vs. LH starters this year.

That’s about all I’ve got; hopefully they can take advantage of some of those things vs. Urias tonight.

Images via Statcast

Today’s game is on Fox-TV (regional — coverage map). A reminder that if you subscribe to MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings, you should be able to watch this game via those services if it’s not on the Fox station in your market. Fox announcers: Joe Buck, John Smoltz and Ken Rosenthal.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Dodgers site True Blue LA. If you do go there to interact with Dodgers 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.