Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati Reds preview, Wednesday 6/29, 7:05 CT

Wednesday notes...

• NICO NEWS: Nico Hoerner, last 30 games since May 25: .333/.376/.444 (36-for-108) with two doubles, two triples, two home runs and only seven strikeouts.
• HERE’S A SURPRISE: Mark Leiter Jr., last seven appearances: 3.60 ERA, 1.067 WHIP, 19 strikeouts in 15 innings. (Could he become a useful long reliever?)
• ANOTHER HOT HITTER: Rafael Ortega, month of June: .322 /.394/.509 (19-for-59) with five doubles and two home runs.
• WHAT A RELIEF: Cubs relievers now rank second in MLB in strikeouts per nine innings (10.25), their 6 K’s Tuesday night helping them surpass the Mets (10.23). Only Atlanta’s relievers (10.61) are better.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Reds lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Hunter Greene, RHP

Justin Steele had a nice run of three starts, then the Pirates hit him pretty hard last Thursday in Pittsburgh.

Worse was his start in Cincinnati May 26, when... well, you probably don’t want to look at that link. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. This one has to be better. Right? Right?

Well, there is this:

Steele in home games: nine starts, 43⅔ innings, 3.30 ERA, 1.328 WHIP
Steele in away games: five starts, 21 innings, 7.29 ERA, 1.714 WHIP

Perhaps pitching at Wrigley will help.

Hunter Greene started that May 26 game for the Reds and the Cubs scored five runs off him, including three home runs (Nico Hoerner, Willson Contreras, Ian Happ). That would ordinarily be really good, but... like I said, don’t look at the boxscore.

Since then, Greene has one-hit the Diamondbacks over seven innings (June 6), but his last two starts have been bad: 10 innings, 10 runs (all earned), five home runs.

Look at the graphic below. Greene’s basically a two-pitch pitcher who can throw 100 miles per hour. He should be a closer, not a starter.

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 Reds site Red Reporter. If you do go there to interact with Reds 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.