Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals preview, Sunday 9/26, 1:20 CT

Sunday notes...

• RUN SCORING: The Cubs have scored four or more runs in 13 consecutive games, a season high and their longest such streak since 15 straight from August 11-26, 2016. Unfortunately, although they have scored 66 runs in those 13 games (5.08 per game), they have allowed 107 (8.23 per game) and are 2-11 over that span.
• A STREAK SNAPPED: The Cubs are 39-41 at Wrigley Field and thus their run of seven straight winning seasons at home since 2014 has ended. That was the team’s longest since another seven-season run from 2003-09.
• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom’s 28 home runs (in 338 AB) this season are the most among all NL rookies and he ranks third among all rookies behind Ryan Mountcastle (31 HR in 508 AB) and Adolis Garcia (30 HR in 553 AB).
• JUST ONE MORE, PART 1: The Cubs have had 21 players hit at least one homer this season. That’s one short of the franchise record. The Cubs had 22 different players homer in 1996, 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2013. Two position players on the active roster have yet to homer this year: Nico Hoerner and Nick Martini.
• JUST ONE MORE, PART 2: Twelve different pitchers have recorded a save for the Cubs this season, a franchise record. The old record of nine was set 1970 and matched in 2019. The MLB record for most pitchers with a save in a single season is 13, set by the Rays this year. Apart from the current starting rotation, two relievers on the active roster have yet to record a save in 2021: Scott Effross and Trevor Megill.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

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

Keegan Thompson, RHP vs. Jake Woodford, RHP

USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY NETWORK

Like some of the other young Cubs starters, Keegan Thompson has had some growing pains. He has a 6.08 ERA and 2.025 WHIP in five starts, which is... not good. His last outing, coming off an IL stint to face the Brewers, was decent enough, if short: two scoreless innings with one hit and two walks allowed.

Thompson has a 4.05 ERA and 1.350 WHIP in five relief appearances and 6⅔ innings vs. St. Louis this year. Paul Goldschmidt and Dylan Carlson have homered off him.

Statcast

Jake Woodford has made 18 relief appearances and six starts for the Cardinals this year with decent results: 3.92 ERA, 1.326 WHIP. He’s been slightly worse as a starter (4.05 ERA) than in relief (3.82 ERA).

He has two relief appearances and one start vs. the Cubs this year, with a 3.38 ERA in eight innings. As is the case with many pitchers this year, many of the Cubs he faced aren’t on the team anymore. Willson Contreras is 3-for-6 with two home runs off Woodford.

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 Cardinals site Viva el Birdos. If you do go there to interact with Cardinals 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.