Chicago Cubs vs. Arizona Diamondbacks preview, Sunday 7/25, 1:20 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Sunday notes...

• A CLUB THE CUBS DON’T WANT TO JOIN: There are just five teams the D-backs have defeated three or more times: Nationals (3-4), Padres (3-6), Pirates (3-0), Reds (5-1) and Rockies (6-7). Hopefully the Cubs win today and stay out of that “club.”
• A SAVE TO REMEMBER: On Friday, at 26 years, 132 days of age, Keegan Thompson became the youngest Cub to record a save of more than one inning since Rafael Dolis (24 years, 108 days) threw two innings to pick up a save, April 27, 2012 at Philadelphia. (Here’s hoping Thompson has a better Cubs career than Dolis did.)
• ONE YEAR AGO: Saturday marked one calendar year since the Cubs opened the 60-game pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Through Saturday, the Cubs have put together an 82-77 record over that year and 2021 so far under David Ross.
• THE SHERIFF: Andrew Chafin’s 24⅓-inning scoreless streak came to an end Saturday. It still ranks as the longest such streak by any MLB reliever this year.
• WHERE WILL HE START FOR ANOTHER TEAM?: Kris Bryant has seen time at third base (28 G, 25 starts) this season. But he also has double-dight games and starts in left field (27 G, 19 GS), right field (26 G, 22 GS), center field (14 G, 10 GS) and first base (12 G, 10 GS).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Diamondbacks lineup:

Trevor Williams, RHP vs. Caleb Smith, LHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Trevor Williams: Five innings, four runs... oh, wait, you have definitely heard this one before.

Except in this case, Williams HAS actually had this exact pitching line, in his last start, last Tuesday in St. Louis. That was the game the Cubs came back and won with a six-run ninth.

Williams seems to start out strong every game and then... well, you know.

His last start vs. Arizona, April 23, 2019, was good — seven innings, two runs. But again, most of those D-backs are long gone. Only one current Diamondback has more than a handful of at-bats against Trevor (David Peralta, 4-for-13, a double, a triple, a home run).

Williams has pitched much better at Wrigley Field this year (3.81 ERA in 28⅓ innings) than on the road (7.88 ERA in 24 innings), so there’s that.

Statcast

It wasn’t that long ago that I was writing about the idea of the Cubs trading for Caleb Smith, a one-time Rule 5 pick of the team.

That’s obviously not happening and over his last seven starts Smith has a 5.91 ERA and has allowed seven home runs in 35 innings. That includes serving up nine runs to the Dodgers in the first inning a couple of weeks ago.

His last start, vs. the Pirates, was decent. But: a) it’s the Pirates and b) it was at Chase Field, where Smith has a 3.72 ERA in 48⅓ innings, as opposed to his road record of a 5.46 ERA and seven home runs allowed in 29⅔ innings.

This could be a good day for Cubs hitters.

Statcast

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 Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit. If you do go there to interact with D-Backs 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.