Chicago Cubs vs. Kansas City Royals preview, Saturday 8/21, 1:20 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Saturday notes:

• NOTING THE LOSSES: The Cubs today hope to avoid tying their all-time record home losing streak, 12 games, set April 4-May 3, 1994. The last home win was July 26, when Javier Báez singled in the winning run for a walkoff in the bottom of the ninth.
• THIS HAPP-ENED: Ian Happ, last eight games (hit safely in seven): .310/.375/.655 (9-for-29) with a double and three home runs.
• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom’s 19 homers this season lead NL rookies and rank tied for third in the majors with Eric Haase, behind Adolis Garcia (27) and Baltimore’s Ryan Mountcastle (20). With one more Wisdom would become the sixth Cubs rookie to hit 20 in a season. The other six: Kris Bryant (26, 2015), Billy Williams (25, 1961), Ian Happ (24, 2017), Geovany Soto (23, 2008) and Tyler Colvin (20, 2010).
• THE LEFTY IS PRETTY GOOD: Adam Morgan has posted a 0.77 ERA (one earned run in 11⅔ innings) in his last 15 games since July 17, walking four, striking out 18 and holding opponents to a .150 BA (6-for-40) and a .227 OBP.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Royals lineup:

Keegan Thompson, RHP vs. Kris Bubic, LHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Keegan Thompson has been recalled from Triple-A Iowa to make this start, and possibly remain in the rotation the rest of the year.

In 27 games (one start) previously this year for the Cubs, Thompson has posted a 2.21 ERA and 1.279 WHIP. The walk rate’s higher than you’d like (4.9 per nine innings), but since his return to Iowa late last month to stretch out to start, he has a 0.00 ERA and 0.682 WHIP, with 16 strikeouts in 14⅔ innings.

He has never faced the Royals or anyone on their active roster.

Statcast

Kris Bubic and Nico Hoerner were teammates at Stanford; of course, with Nico out they won’t meet in this series.

Bubic, who turned 24 on Thursday, has had a rough go of it this year, and since June 1 has a 6.97 ERA and 1.754 WHIP with 18 (!) home runs allowed in 57 innings. That includes getting torched by the Cardinals in his last start August 15 for nine hits and seven runs in 1⅓ innings.

Bubic started against the Cubs August 5, 2020 in Kansas City, but just two Cubs who faced him that night (David Bote and Jason Heyward) are still on the team. (Ian Happ played that night too but didn’t face Bubic.)

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 Royals site Royals Review. If you do go there to interact with Royals 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.