Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox preview, Tuesday 5/3, 6:40 CT

The pitching matchup below reflects the following roster move:

Tuesday notes...

• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom opened Sunday’s scoring with a fifth-inning solo home run. Since Wisdom was called up May 25, 2021, his 32 homers are tied for second-most in the NL with Bryce Harper, trailing only Pete Alonso (35).
• SEIYA UPDATE: Seiya Suzuki’s .934 OPS in April ranks fourth among Cubs rookies in the month of April behind Geovany Soto (1.060 in 2008), Hee-Seop Choi (.986 in 2003) and Tyler Colvin (.965 in 2010). Suzuki’s nine April extra-base hits are tied for second-most among Cubs rookies in April (Soto, 14).
• CUBS vs. SOX NOTES: The White Sox hold a 70-64 lead in the all-time interleague series with the Cubs. Over the the last 10 seasons, the teams are 25-25 with the road team holding a 15-10 record in the other team’s ballpark. The Cubs look to win their first season series over the White Sox since going 4-2 against them in 2018.
• THE NEW GUYS: The Cubs had 15 players make their team debut in April, which is the most in one calendar month in franchise history. The previous high was 14 players in April 2013 The Cubs’ all-time roster count is now 2,176.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

White Sox lineup:

Scott Effross, RHP vs. Michael Kopech, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Since this is an emergency start and Scott Effross has not thrown more than 26 pitches in a game this year, I would assume this will be a bullpen game and that it’s likely Keegan Thompson will back up Effross.

The fact that a lefty (Drew Smyly) is no longer starting this game is probably good news, as the Sox hit lefties (.799 OPS so far this year) far better than righthanders (.569 OPS). That’s been the case for the Sox for the last couple of years.

Effross made his MLB debut against the Sox last August 29 in a blowout loss and Luis Robert homered off him, but I wouldn’t read too much into that.

Michael Kopech was the Red Sox’ first round pick in 2014 and came to the White Sox in the Chris Sale deal in 2018. He was almost immediately promoted to the major leagues, made four starts and then had Tommy John surgery and opted out of the 2020 season, so he didn’t return to action until 2021, when he made 44 appearances out of the Sox bullpen and struck out 103 of the 285 batters he faced.

This year he’s been lights-out: Four starts, 1.42 ERA, 0.977 WHIP. He’s got a bit of a high walk rate (4.3 per nine innings) so maybe the Cubs can take advantage.

Kopech made three relief appearances vs. the Cubs last year and the only current Cub to get a hit off him (of 11 batters faced) was Rafael Ortega, who doubled.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on NBC Sports Chicago with the Sox announcers.

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.