Chicago Cubs vs. Baltimore Orioles preview, Tuesday 7/12, 7:05 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Tuesday notes...

• STILL LOSING THE CLOSE ONES: Each of the Cubs’ last five games and seven of their last nine have been decided by two or fewer runs. For the 2022 season, the Cubs have gone 17-28 (.378) in games decided by two or fewer runs.
• RELIEF NOTES: The Cubs bullpen has pitched 368⅓ innings, the most in the majors and has averaged 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings, the second-best mark in the majors behind only Atlanta (10.52). On the other hand... Cubs relievers have a 4.45 ERA, which ranks 26th in MLB.
• LOTS OF CUBS: The Cubs have used 48 players this year. The franchise (and MLB) record of 69 was set last year; if the Cubs have another selloff they could come close to that. Of the 48 this year, six are no longer in the organization (Jesse Chavez, Conner Menez, Eric Stout, Locke St. John, Ildemaro Vargas and Jonathan Villar).
• INJURED CUBS: The Cubs currently have 15 players on the injured list, six of whom (Adbert Alzolay, Michael Hermosillo, Codi Heuer, Ethan Roberts, Manuel Rodriguez and Brad Wieck) are on the 60-day IL. In addition, Justin Steele is on the paternity list (though he is expected to return this week).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Orioles lineup:

Adrian Sampson, RHP vs. Jordan Lyles, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Adrian Sampson, in a small sample size (five appearances, three starts, 21x innings) has thrown well for the Cubs this year. It’s possible he’s figured something out at age 30 and could be a decent bottom of the rotation starter going forward.

His only career appearance vs. the Orioles was one inning of relief in 2019, and most of the current Orioles haven’t faced him. Perhaps that will be to his advantage.

Jordan Lyles! Hi there! The Cubs faced him a lot when he was in the NL. In fact, he made his MLB debut at Wrigley Field May 31, 2011, when he was with Houston... when the Astros were still a NL team. At the time he was a Top 50 MLB prospect.

Since then? Rockies, Padres, Brewers, Pirates, Brewers again, Rangers and Orioles. He has 15 career appearances vs. the Cubs (nine starts) with a 5.68 ERA. He hasn’t faced the Cubs since 2019, though, and among current active Cubs only Willson Contreras (4-for-7, two home runs) has more than a handful of at-bats against him.

If those two paragraphs look familiar, they should. I wrote them last month in a game preview for the Cubs/Orioles game that got rained out (lightly edited). Since then Lyles has a 4.50 ERA and 1.250 WHIP in six starts — numbers that pretty much match his season totals. Points for consistency, at least.

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 Orioles site Camden Chat. If you do go there to interact with Orioles 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.