Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox preview, Wednesday 5/4, 6:40 CT

Best news of the day: It will not rain during tonight’s game. (Not that it’ll be nice — temps will be in the 40s. But it will be dry.)

Wednesday notes...

• NICO NEWS: Over his last 15 games, Nico Hoerner is batting .314/.352/.412 (16-for-51) with three doubles and a triple and seven RBI.
• KEEGAN KEEPS IT GOING: Keegan Thompson threw 3⅔ innings Tuesday evening and allowed just one run. That gives him five straight outings of three-plus innings with one or fewer runs allowed, becoming the first Cub reliever (since at least 1901) to accomplish that feat.
• DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE: The Cubs have turned five double plays in their last two games-combined, and seven in their last four games. The 26 double plays turned ranks tied for second-most in the majors with the Royals (the Rockies lead with 34).
• OR, DOUBLE TROUBLE: The Cubs have grounded into 25 double plays, which leads all of MLB. The Phillies are second with 23.
• WHAT A RELIEF!: The Cubs bullpen is second in the majors with 118 strikeouts and rank third with 10.73 strikeouts per nine innings and the pen has induced 12 double plays, which leads all of MLB.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

White Sox lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Lucas Giolito, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Kyle Hendricks had a bad April. Granted and stipulated. It still wasn’t as bad as his April a year ago, when he had an ERA over 7 and allowed 10 home runs.

After that bad month Kyle put together a good 18-start run in which he posted a 2.89 ERA, right in line with his career norms, before having a bad September.

The jury’s still out on whether Kyle is in decline. I, for one, hope he is not.

Last year he had a good start (six innings, two runs) vs. the Sox August 6 and a bad one (4x innings, eight runs) against them August 29. The good one was at Wrigley, and Kyle has pitched much better at home than on the road this year.

That’s all I’ve got. Hopefully we get good Kyle tonight.

Lucas Giolito has become one of the better starters in the American League.

Except against the Cubs, who have pounded him in three of the four career starts he has made against them.

He has not started against the Cubs since 2019, so most of those players are gone now. No current Cub has more than nine career at-bats vs. Giolito. That’s Willson Contreras, who has homered twice off him. Jonathan Villar is 3-for-3 with a home run.

This year, Giolito has made three starts, though he missed a couple of weeks with a minor abdominal injury after his first one. That doesn’t seem to have affected him on his return, as he threw 99 pitches last Friday against the Angels.

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.