Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres preview, Wednesday 5/11, 3:10 CT

Wednesday notes...

• WILLSON!: Over his last four games, Willson Contreras is 9-for-14 (.643) with a triple, a home run, two walks, no strikeouts and a 1.722 OPS. He leads all qualifying catchers with an .883 OPS this season while his 26 hits are tied for the most among big league backstops with JT Realmuto.
• TRYING TO EVEN THINGS UP: The Cubs enter this game 30-31 all-time at Petco Park. The ballpark opened in 2004.
• THE BAD AND THE NOT-AS-BAD: The Cubs are 5-12 vs. teams that made the postseason in 2021 and 5-7 against all other teams.
• DOUBLING THINGS UP: The Cubs’ 34 double plays turned rank third in MLB behind the Rockies (43) and Orioles (37).
• KEEGAN THOMPSON: If Thompson had enough innings to qualify for the ERA lead (he has 23, would need 29 as of this morning), his 1.17 ERA would rank second in the NL to Pablo Lopez (1.00). More on Thompson below.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Padres lineup:

Keegan Thompson, RHP vs. Nick Martinez, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Keegan Thompson is finally getting his first start of 2022 after seven good-to-outstanding relief appearances. He made two relief appearances vs. the Padres last year and allowed three runs in 4⅓ innings. No current member of the Padres has more than two at-bats against him. Interesting split from 2021:

Last year as a starter: six starts, 5.51 ERA, 1.898 WHIP, 16⅓ innings
Last year as a reliever: 26 appearances, 2.43 ERA, 1.297 WHIP, 37 innings

His highest pitch count this year is 56, done on April 27 vs. the Braves. He threw 54 pitches last Saturday in the first game against the Dodgers.

If it were up to me? I’d have used an opener and brought Thompson in after that. But it’s not up to me. Hope this works.

Nick Martinez pitched four years for the Rangers (2014-17) with limited success. Then he went to NPB and was very good from 2018-21, so the Padres signed him to a one-year deal with multiple player options.

Martinez has made five starts this year and they range from good to excellent. He has never faced the Cubs and only three Cubs have a handful of at-bats against him. He mixes up his pitches well, as shown below.

Hopefully the Cubs have a good scouting report on him.

Statcast

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 Padres site Gaslamp Ball. If you do go there to interact with Padres 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 2022 Game Thread procedure will be like last years, 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.