Chicago Cubs vs. New York Yankees preview, Saturday 6/11, 6:15 CT

Saturday notes...

• THE BATS: Since May 20, the Cubs have posted a .343 OBP and scored 100 runs, averaging five runs per game. Unfortunately, that’s resulted in a W/L record of just 8-12 in the 20 games since then.
• THOSE 20 GAMES: The main reason for that 8-12 record is the 122 runs allowed in that span (6.1 runs per game), including 35 home runs allowed. Yikes.
• NOT WINNING THE CLOSE ONES: The Cubs have had 32 games decided by two or fewer runs, just two fewer than the MLB-leading Orioles. They have a MLB-worst record of 12-20 in those games, and Friday’s loss dropped their record in one-run games to 6-14.
• WILLSON!: Willson Contreras’ .396 OBP ranks third in the National League and ninth in MLB.
• HOT HITTING: Rafael Ortega, 12 games since May 26: .400/.475/.543 (14-for-35), two doubles, a home run, five walks.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Yankees lineup:

Matt Swarmer, RHP vs. Jordan Montgomery, LHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Well, THIS ought to be interesting.

Matt Swarmer is making his third MLB start. He’s done well in both of them, and both were against good, contending teams.

But those teams aren’t the Yankees. Obviously Swarmer has never faced the Yankees or anyone on their roster. Maybe that’ll be to his advantage. Let’s hope so.

Jordan Montgomery is, like all the Yankees starters, having a fine year. He’s been remarkably consistent, too: Since a bad opening start left his ERA at 8.10, after that his ERA has not been above 3.35 or below 2.51. Last three starts: 2.33 ERA, 0.776 WHIP. What’s really amazing about this Yankees staff is that they simply don’t walk people. They’ve issued 134 walks in 56 games — about 2.3 walks per game. (The Cubs, by comparison, have 181 walks issued in the same number of games, 3,2 per game, and that’s only a bit above the league average of 178.)

Montgomery has never faced the Cubs and only a handful of Cubs have any at-bats against him. And don’t send a LHB up against him, LHB have a .406 OPS against him.

Good luck, Cubs hitters.

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 via those services even if it’s not on the Fox-TV affiliate in your market.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Yankees site Pinstripe Alley. If you do go there to interact with Yankees 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.