Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati Reds preview, Monday 7/26, 7:05 CT

Monday notes:

• EVERYONE DIGS THE LONG BALL: The Cubs have had 10 players hit five or more homers this season, tied with Colorado for third-most in the NL behind the Giants (12 players with at least five homers) and Brewers (11 players).
• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom’s 14 home runs lead N.L. rookies and are fourth-most among all rookies. Adolis Garcia leads with 22 home runs while Ryan Mountcastle is second with 16 and Eric Haase is third with 15. Wisdom’s .879 OPS leads all rookies (min. 150 PA).
• UNIVERSAL DH PLEASE: Alec Mills’ double Sunday was just the Cubs’ second XBH of the year by a pitcher (also, Kyle Hendricks, June 6 vs. the Giants). Cubs pitchers are hitting .114/.148/.128 (17-for-149) with 71 strikeouts.
• BAGS JAMMED: The Cubs loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh inning Sunday but could not score. For the season the Cubs are hitting .284/.375/.448 (19-for-67) with five doubles and two home runs with the bases loaded. The two slams: Javier Báez, April 21 vs. the Mets and Kris Bryant, April 26 vs. the Braves.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Reds lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Wade Miley, LHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Kyle Hendricks, since May 1: 2.66 ERA, 1,141 WHIP, 15 walks in 15 starts. One of those starts was against the Reds July 4 in Cincinnati, where he allowed five hits and one run in six innings, with no walks and five strikeouts. Should have been good enough to win, but a) the bullpen failed and b) the offense vanished.

I’d certainly take another outing like that one tonight.

Statcast

Wade Miley was Hendricks’ opponent in that July 4 game. He gave the Cubs two runs on 10 hits in 6⅔ innings. Since then Miley threw eight shutout innings against the Brewers and allowed the Mets two runs (one earned) in a 6⅓-inning outing.

I’d expect a low-scoring game tonight.

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

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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.