Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati Reds preview, Wednesday 7/28, 7:05 CT

Wednesday notes:

• WILLSON!: Willson Contreras has homered in two of his last four games and three of his last nine contests, and his 16 home runs this season lead all NL catchers.
• EVEN-UP: Since the Cubs’ 11-game losing streak ended, they are 8-8. The Reds are also 8-8 in that time span. So are the Dodgers, and in the same time frame the Mets are 9-9. The Cubs have almost kept pace with the Brewers, who are 8-7 over that time period.
• SAVING GAMES: Five Cubs pitchers have saves this year (Craig Kimbrel, Alec Mills, Ryan Tepera, Rex Brothers and Keegan Thompson). The Cubs also had five pitchers with saves last year, but in 2019 nine different Cubs posted saves (Kimbrel, Mills, Pedro Strop, Brandon Kintzler, David Phelps, Allen Webster, Rowan Wick, Steve Cishek and Tyler Chatwood). Nine is the record for the most in a single season in Cubs history since the save rule went into effect in 1969, tied with 1970 (Ted Abernathy, Hank Aguirre, Jim Colborn, Larry Gura, Bill Hands, Bob Miller, Juan Pizarro, Phil Regan and Roberto Rodriguez).
• RUN DROUGHT: The Cubs have scored 431 runs this year in 102 games, 4.23 per game. If they keep up that pace for the rest of the year, they will score 686 runs, the fewest for any Cubs team since 2014 (614).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Reds lineup:

Zach Davies, RHP vs. Tyler Mahle, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Like his teammate Kyle Hendricks, Zach Davies has thrown quite well since May 1: 16 starts, 3.12 ERA, 1.327 WHIP, just six home runs in 83⅔ innings. That’s not too far off the year he had in San Diego in 2020.

Anyway, Davies has faced the Reds twice this year and allowed two earned runs in nine innings. That sounds good, but it also means two short outings. One was four innings, the other five. The last time Davies went more than five innings was in the combined no-hitter June 24, when he went six.

I won’t miss that when he’s gone.

Statcast

Tyler Mahle has made three starts against the Cubs this year with a 4.20 ERA and 1.333 WHIP and four HR allowed in 15 innings. That sounds promising for Cubs hitters.

Mahle has made three starts since he last faced the Cubs July 3 and in those outings he has a 5.51 ERA and 1.696 WHIP, with 11 walks and four HR allowed in 15⅓ innings. Again, that sounds like something Cubs hitters could take advantage of 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.