Chicago Cubs vs. Colorado Rockies preview, Tuesday 8/24, 7:05 CT

Tuesday notes...

• HOME WINNING: The last time the Cubs won two straight at Wrigley was July 25-26, a 5-1 win over the Diamondbacks and a 6-5 win over the Reds. More than two straight at home? Six in a row, three-game sweeps over the Padres (May 31-June 2) and Cardinals (June 11-13).
• THE WALKOFF HERO: In August, Rafael Ortega is hitting .324/.392/.535 (23-for-71) with three doubles, four home runs and 14 runs scored.
• MORE ON WALKOFFS: The Cubs have five walkoff wins this year, with 18 home games remaining. They had six in 2019. Here is a StoryStream with all the Cubs walkoff home runs since 1960.
• GOTTA SCORE: The Cubs are 42-22 when scoring four or more runs in a game this season but are 13-50 when scoring three or fewer runs. The team’s 63 games with three or fewer runs scored are third-most in the majors (Pittsburgh leads with 73).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Rockies lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. German Marquez, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Justin Steele has made two starts since his recall from Triple-A Iowa. One was pretty good, the other, not so much.

He threw 70 pitches the first time, 82 the next, so perhaps he can be stretched out to 90 or so tonight, and maybe throw six innings.

He has never faced the Rockies or anyone on their active roster, so there’s that, anyway.

Statcast

German Marquez’ overall numbers are decent, but since the All-Star break: six starts, 5.19 ERA, seven home runs allowed in 34⅔ innings.

This seems to be the case for almost all the Rockies starters: Marquez is much better at home (3.13 ERA in 15 starts, 89 innings) than on the road (4.81 ERA in 10 starts, 58 innings). This goes a long way toward explaining the vast difference between their home record and road record.

Marquez last faced the Cubs in 2019, but as most of those players are gone, those games have little predictive value. David Bote is 3-for-6 with two homers off Marquez, for whatever that’s worth.

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.