Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox preview, Sunday 8/29, 1:10 CT

Sunday notes...

• JUST ONE MORE: The Cubs need to win either today or Tuesday to avoid their fewest-ever wins in August (6-24 in 1999).
• TEN-RUN CONUNDRUM: Friday night was the 11th game this season in which the Cubs scored 10 or more runs, but the team fell to 6-5 in those contests. The five defeats when scoring 10-plus runs are the team’s most in a season since at least 1901, surpassing the four such losses the team had in 1993 (that club was 12-4 when scoring 10 or more runs in a game).
• ORTEGA UPDATE: Rafael Ortega, since the trade deadline: .315/.376/.554 (29-for-92) with four doubles, six home runs, five stolen bases, 19 RBI and 19 runs.
• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom’s 25 home runs now trail only Adolis Garcia (27), and he has homered in 9.1 percent of his 275 plate appearances. If Wisdom had enough PA to qualify he would lead the NL in that category.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Alfonso Rivas will be making his MLB debut this afternoon.

White Sox lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Dylan Cease, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Kyle Hendricks held the Sox to two runs in six innings August 6 at Wrigley Field, striking out seven. That’s good!

Not good are his home/road splits this year:

Home: 12 starts, 3.00 ERA, 1.187 WHIP in 75 innings
Road: 14 starts, 5.17 ERA, 1.461 WHIP in 76⅔ innings

On the other hand, Hendricks’ last road start, August 17 at Cincinnati, was very good: six innings, three hits, one run. So... perhaps this road start will be better than his overall numbers show.

Statcast

Dylan Cease allowed the Cubs three runs in five innings August 8 at Wrigley Field. Of course, he had a huge lead before he even threw a pitch, as the Sox scored five in the top of the first. Cease struck out 10. He also has a 2.61 ERA in 13 home starts, as opposed to a 5.37 ERA in 13 road starts.

Clearly, we are doomed.

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on NBC Sports Chicago (with the Sox announcers).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox. If you do go there to interact with Sox 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.