Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants preview, Sunday 6/6, 3:05 CT

Sunday notes...

• WINNING, EVEN WHILE LOSING: Despite the three-game losing streak, the Cubs have won nine of their last 13, 11 of their last 16, 15 of their last 22 and are 22-12 (.647) in their last 34 games since April 29 in Atlanta.
• THE PROFESSOR: After allowing seven walks in his first three starts (13 innings), today’s starter Kyle Hendricks has walked just four batters in his last eight starts spanning 49⅓ innings since April 23. More on Kyle below.
• KB, MVP CANDIDATE: Kris Bryant’s 1.421 OPS against left-handed pitching leads the majors, ahead of Buster Posey (1.275) and Evan Longoria (1.264). Bryant’s .408 BA (20-for-49) against lefties ranks second behind Posey (.425).
• THE CLOSE ONES: Saturday’s one-run loss was the Cubs’ 22nd one-run game of the season, tied for the most in the majors with the Mets. The Cubs are 12-10 in one-run contests, and the 12 victories are tied for second-most in the majors (with the Mets) behind the Mariners (13-6).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

FWIW, the Cubs have won all three games started by P.J. Higgins this year.

Giants lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Johnny Cueto, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Overall, Kyle Hendricks’ 2021 numbers don’t look good.

But his last six starts do: 2.95 ERA, 1.185 WHIP, three walks and 30 strikeouts in 39⅔ innings. He’s still a bit susceptible to the home run — six of them in that span — but overall that’s more like the Kyle we’ve been used to.

The last time he faced the Giants was August 22, 2019 at Wrigley Field. He threw seven shutout innings. I’ll take another one of those, please.

Johnny Cueto is 35 — he’s a couple of weeks older than Jake Arrieta — and his last good full season was 2016, with several injuries ruining his last few years.

This year, though, he’s been pretty good, with several outstanding outings. He also has, to date, the best walk rate of his career — just 1.2 per nine innings.

He used to face the Cubs often when he was with the Reds — a total of 26 career starts — but has not faced them since July 11, 2018. Jason Heyward and Kris Bryant homered off him in that game. Those two players have done pretty well vs. Cueto: Bryant is 5-for-10 and Heyward 7-for-22 (.318) with two doubles and two homers. (The latter is likely why Heyward is in today’s lineup.)

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 Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants 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.