Chicago Cubs vs. Boston Red Sox preview, Saturday 7/2, 6:15 CT

Saturday notes...

• THIS MIGHT SURPRISE YOU: All-time in interleague play, the Cubs are 9-7 against the Red Sox and have a winning record against them in both Wrigley Field (4-3) and Fenway Park (5-4).
• THIS MIGHT ALSO SURPRISE YOU: Rafael Ortega’s sacrifice fly Friday gave him an RBI in seven consecutive games. That’s the longest such stretch by a Cub since Anthony Rizzo went eight straight games with an RBI from June 2-11, 2018.
• THE MOREL FILES: Christopher Morel has hit safely in four straight games and nine of his last 10, batting .326/.354/.587 (15-for-46) in that span with three doubles, three home runs and 10 runs scored.
• HAPP-ENINGS: Ian Happ, last 19 games since June 12: .348/.438/.565 (24-for-69) with seven doubles, a triple, two home runs and eight runs scored. He’s had six hits (three XBH) in his last three games.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Red Sox lineup:

Alec Mills, RHP vs. Josh Winckowski, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Alec Mills’ numbers this year are brutal, there’s no sugarcoating that.

I can find one positive note: He has a good walk rate. (Three walks in 17⅓ innings.)

Fun fact: Mills made his MLB debut against the Red Sox May 18, 2016. That’s largely irrelevant to today, since most of those Red Sox aren’t there anymore, and it was a six-batter relief appearance.

We can only hope today is better.

Josh Winckowski is making his fourth MLB start. He was the Blue Jays’ 15th-round pick in 2016, and was acquired by Boston in the three-team, six-player deal that sent Andrew Benintendi to the Royals (he had previously been traded by Toronto to the Mets in the Steven Matz deal).

Of his four starts, three have been pretty good, the other one, not so much.

He’s obviously never faced the Cubs or anyone on the Cubs’ active roster. As shown below, he has a pretty good pitch mix that includes an effective slider.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Fox-TV (regional — coverage map). Fox announcers: Adam Amin and A.J. Pierzynski. A reminder that if you subscribe to MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings, you can watch this game even if it’s not on the Fox 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 Red Sox site Over The Monster. If you do go there to interact with Red 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.