Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox preview, Saturday 5/28, 6:15 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Saturday notes...

• THE THOMPSON FILE: Keegan Thompson is one of four NL pitchers to have an ERA under 2.00 with at least 35 innings. The others: Miles Mikolas (1.96 ERA in 55 innings), Joe Musgrove (1.90 ERA in 52 innings) and Tony Gonsolin (1.62 ERA in 39 innings). Thompson has held opponents to a .293 OBP and a .604 OPS while pitching at least three innings in eight of his outings. More on Thompson below.
• HOME SWEET HOME?: Tonight begins a stretch in which the Cubs play 18 of their next 23 games in Chicago through June 19, including 16 of those 23 at Wrigley Field. But... the Cubs are only 7-15 at home, 11-11 on the road.
• SCORING EARLY: The Cubs have scored 37 runs in the first inning this season, the second-most by any team in baseball, trailing only the Angels (39) and their first-inning .883 OPS leads the majors.
• SCORING ODDITY: In the last 39 match-ups against the White Sox since May 8, 2014, the Cubs have outscored the White Sox by 13 runs (187-174), but are 19-20 against them.

Here are today’s particulars.Cubs lineup:

White Sox lineup:

Also for tonight (time listed is ET):

Keegan Thompson, RHP vs. Johnny Cueto, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Ordinarily, had the Cubs stayed on rotation, Wade Miley and Drew Smyly would have thrown the two games against the White Sox. However, look at this:

Sox vs. LHP: .258/.324/.426, 12 HR in 298 PA
Sox vs. RHP: .228/.282/.343, 27 HR in 1,181 PA

So yeah, good idea to keep the lefties away from Sox RH power. (Marcus Stroman will go on Sunday, another good call.)

Thompson threw 3⅔ innings (46 pitches) against the Sox May 3 at Wrigley Field after Scott Effross was an “opener.” Thompson allowed four hits and one run and didn’t walk or strike out anyone. The run was a solo homer by Tim Anderson.

That was the night where it rained lightly through the entire game. Conditions will be better tonight.

Johnny Cueto! Hi old buddy! <waving>

In his career, Cueto has made 27 starts against the Cubs, not counting the NLDS game in 2016 where Javy Báez’ solo homer won the game for the Cubs.

It has, however, been a while. Cueto has faced the Cubs only once since 2018, and that was June 6, 2021, before the Cubs selloff.

The good news — perhaps — is that Patrick Wisdom took Cueto deep twice that afternoon. Perhaps he can do that again tonight.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Fox-TV (regional — coverage map). A reminder that if you subscribe to MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings, you can watch this game on those services even if it’s not on the Fox affiliate in your market. Fox announcers: Len Kasper and A.J. Pierzynski.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox. If you do go there to interact with Sox 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.