Chicago Cubs vs. Arizona Diamondbacks preview, Thursday 5/19, 6:40 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Thursday notes...

• WHAT A RELIEF!: Cubs relievers tossed 4⅔ scoreless innings in Wednesday’s game and have allowed two or fewer earned runs in nine straight games, posting a 1.53 ERA (five earned runs in 29⅓ innings) during that stretch.
• MORE ON THE BULLPEN: Scott Effross has not allowed an earned run in his last 13 outings dating to April 21 (12 innings), and Chris Martin has posted a 1.00 ERA (one earned run in nine innings) in his last 11 appearances, holding the opponent scoreless in 10 of them.
• EVEN MORE RELIEF: Cubs relievers have struck out 176 batters this year (of 608 faced, or 28.9 percent). The total of 176 leads all MLB teams. (For reference, the 608 batters faced by Cubs relievers ranks 15th in MLB.)
• STREAKING: Seiya Suzuki has a seven-game hitting streak in which he’s batting .304/.360./478 (7-for-23) with four doubles.
• HAPP-ENINGS: Ian Happ, last nine games: .323/.432/.484 (10-for-31) with two doubles, a home run, seven runs scored and six walks. His .403 OBP for the season ranks fourth in the NL and eighth in MLB.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Diamondbacks lineup:

Marcus Stroman, LHP vs. Zac Gallen, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Marcus Stroman appeared to be righting the ship over his last two starts (two runs in 13 innings, just one walk) before going on the IL (presumably for COVID, as there was no designation for the IL stint).

Hopefully, he can pick up where he left off. He did not face the Diamondbacks last year and no current D-back has ever faced him.

Hopefully, that’s to his advantage.

The Cubs did something to Zac Gallen last Saturday in Arizona that no one else had done this year — hit a home run. Yan Gomes’ homer was the first off Gallen in 2021. It took a three-run rally off the Arizona bullpen in the ninth to win that game, though.

Gallen’s been really, really good this year, allowing just four runs in 34⅓ innings. The Cubs offense will have to be really, really good (along with a good outing from Stroman) to win this game.

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 Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit. If you do go there to interact with D-backs 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.