Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants preview, Sunday 9/12, 1:20 CT

Sunday notes...

• FRANK THE TANK UPDATE: Frank Schwindel, last eight games since September 3: .516/.559/.935 (16-for-31) with four home runs. He’s 7-for-18 (.389) since Monday and if he somehow has a big game today, he could be in line for another Player of the Week award.
• HAPP-ENSTANCE: Or maybe Ian Happ could be Player of the Week. Since last Monday: .316/.316/.895 (6-for-19), a triple, three home runs. In 16 games since August 25: .354/.354/.754 (23-for-65), three doubles, a triple, seven home runs.
• THE FRIENDLY CONFINES: The Cubs are 39-34 at Wrigley Field and the team needs just two wins in the seven remaining home games to record its eighth consecutive winning season record at the Friendly Confines dating to 2014. The current run of seven consecutive home winning seasons is the team’s longest since a seven-season run from 2003-09. If the Cubs do record eight consecutive winning records at Wrigley Field, it would be the first time since a 15-season run from 1926-40.
• HE’S A STREAKY HITTER, BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS: From August 20-28, Patrick Wisdom hit .300/.364/1.000 (9-for-30) with seven home runs. Since his last home run, August 28 vs. the White Sox, though, Wisdom has hit .089/.160/.156 (4-for-45) with 22 strikeouts. Wisdom has the day off today.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

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

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Logan Webb, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Justin Steele has made five starts since being recalled to join the Cubs rotation. In his last outing, September 6 against the Reds, he threw five scoreless innings before running out of gas in the sixth and hitting two batters in a row. Two of the three runs charged to him scored after he left the game, overall it was a very good start.

Steele has never faced the Giants or anyone on their active roster. Perhaps this will be to his advantage.

Statcast

Logan Webb has had the weirdest 2021 season. Through the end of May he’d made 10 appearances (nine starts) and posted a 3.86 ERA and 1.163 WHIP, good but not spectacular numbers.

Then he suffered a shoulder injury and missed about six weeks. That included one Triple-A rehab start.

Returning from the injury in early July, he’s been lights-out: 12 starts, 1.79 ERA, 0.967 WHIP, four HR in 70⅓ innings, at least six innings in the last nine starts.

So he got hurt and... got better?

Webb has never faced the Cubs and no Cub has more than three at-bats against him. He mixes up his pitches well and relies quite a bit on offspeed stuff, as you can see here:

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 Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants 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.