Chicago Cubs vs. Colorado Rockies preview, Wednesday 8/4, 7:40 CT

Wednesday notes...

• FALLING DOWN: The Cubs are a season-low six games under .500 at 51-57, marking the first time the team has been at least six games under since finishing the 2014 campaign 16 games under .500 at 73-89.
• NO TROUBLE AT THE MILLS, THAT’S ALL: Alec Mills tonight looks to become the first Cubs right-handed pitcher to make 10 straight starts in a single season with three or fewer earned runs and two or fewer walks since Jake Arrieta closed out his 2015 campaign with 11 consecutive such outings. More on Mills below.
• NUGGET OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom’s 16 home runs lead NL rookies and are tied for fourth-most among all rookies. Adolis Garcia leads with 23 home runs while Detroit’s Eric Haase and Ryan Mountcastle are tied for second with 18 each. Wisdom’s .909 OPS leads all rookies (min. 150 PA).
• STRIKE FORCE: Cubs relievers rank third in MLB in strikeout percentage at 27.6 (488 K, 1788 batters faced), behind the Brewers at 27.9 and Cleveland, 27.8. (Yes, I know most of those relievers are gone now.)

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

The Rockies lineup was not available at posting time. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Rockies lineup.

Alec Mills, RHP vs. Jon Gray, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

This is Alec Mills’ first-ever start against the Rockies. Thus it’s his first-ever start in Coors Field, and Mills has a 5.93 ERA in 30⅓ road innings this year as opposed to a 3.27 home ERA in 33 innings — although he’s allowed three HR on the road compared to four at Wrigley and the opposition’s SLG is about the same (.421 home, .415 road).

So maybe the unfamiliarity with Rox hitters helps Mills, or maybe they just unload on him. Your guess is as good as mine.

Statcast

Jon Gray is having a pretty good year. All things considered, it could wind up as the best of his career, and he made it clear he wanted to stay in Colorado, which is why the Rockies didn’t try to trade him at the deadline.

Over his last seven starts: 2.61 ERA, 1.140 WHIP, just five home runs in 40⅓ innings.

No current Cub has more than five career AB vs. Gray (Jason Heyward is the only one with that many, 1-for-5).

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 Rockies site Purple Row. If you do go there to interact with Rockies 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.