Chicago Cubs vs. Philadelphia Phillies preview, Tuesday 9/14, 6:05 CT

Today’s roster move: Here

Tuesday notes...

• THE DUFFSTER: In 11 career games against the Phillies, Matt Duffy is batting .381/.409/.595 (16-for-42) with four doubles, a triple, a homer and eight RBI.
• SCHWINDY CITY UPDATE: Frank Schwindel’s 1.092 OPS with the Cubs is the fourth-highest among any player in their first 38 games with the franchise (since 1901). Schwindel’s 1.092 OPS is surpassed only by Hank Sauer in 1949 (1.165), Hack Wilson in 1926 (1.111) and Glenallen Hill in 1994 (1.102). (H/T: Ed Hartig)
• MORE FRANK THE TANK: Since joining the Cubs July 30, Schwindel ranks among the major league leaders in batting average (1st, .366), OPS (2rd, 1.092) and slugging percentage (3rd, .676).
• ROOKIES: Eight Cubs rookie position players this season have combined to hit .246 (174-for-708) with 26 doubles, five triples, 39 home runs and 96 RBI.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Phillies lineup:

Also of interest for this series:

Adrian Sampson, RHP vs. Kyle Gibson, RHP

Adrian Sampson has made six appearances for the Cubs, two of which are starts.

The two starts have been... pretty decent, actually. In his last outing, September 7 vs. the Reds at Wrigley Field, he allowed two first-inning homers and then shut the Reds down pretty well through five. He’s not young — 29 — but if he keeps this up, he might be an intriguing option for the 2022 rotation.

Sampson has never faced the Phillies. The only current Phillie who has faced him is Jean Segura (2-for-3). Perhaps this will be to Sampson’s advantage.

Statcast

If the Cubs had stayed in contention in July, they might have looked to the Rangers to trade for Kyle Gibson for rotation help. Instead, the Cubs sold off and Gibson was traded to the Phillies, where he’s been markedly worse (4.60 ERA, 1.383 WHIP in eight appearances) than he was in Texas (2.87 ERA, 1.177 WHIP in 19 starts).

His Phillies performance is more in line with his pre-2021 career norms (4.57 ERA, 1.418 WHIP in 205 appearances), so the post-trade Gibson is probably the “real” Gibson.

Gibson since August 11: six appearances (five starts), 5.50 ERA, 1.456 WHIP. The last time he faced the Cubs was in 2015, so that’s largely irrelevant, and the only current Cub who has more than three at-bats against him is Robinson Chirinos (4-for-6, a home run), another small sample size.

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.