Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants preview, Thursday 7/28, 8:45 CT

Thursday notes...

• THE LAST TIME IT HAPPENED, PART 1: If the Cubs win tonight, it would be their first seven-game winning streak since August 31-September 6, 2021 against the Twins (two), Pirates (four) and Reds (one).
• THE LAST TIME IT HAPPENED, PART 2: Three different pitchers recorded a save in each of the Cubs’ last three wins: David Robertson on Sunday, Scott Effross on Monday and Mychal Givens on Tuesday. It was the first time the Cubs won three games in a row with three different pitchers earning the save since August 3-5, 2019 (Craig Kimbrel, Tyler Chatwood, David Phelps).
• THE LAST TIME IT HAPPENED, PART 3: The last time the Cubs won four straight games with four different hurlers getting the save was July 28-August 1, 1996 (Kent Bottenfield, Terry Adams, Turk Wendell, Bob Patterson).
• THE LAST TIME IT HAPPENED, PART 4: Cubs pitching has posted a 1.30 ERA (11 earned runs in 76 innings) in the team’s last eight games, walking 24, striking out 65 and holding the opponent to two or fewer earned runs in each game. The last time the Cubs had an eight-game stretch allowing two or fewer earned runs October 2, 1980-April 15, 1981, spanning two seasons and the last such span of nine games was September 1-7, 1945.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Giants lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Alex Wood, LHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Justin Steele, eight starts since June 1: 2.85 ERA, 1.289 WHIP in 47⅓ innings. That’ll work going forward. There’s been only one clunker among those eight, so he’s been quite consistent.

Steele’s only career start vs. the Giants came September 12, 2021 at Wrigley Field. He allowed four runs, mostly to guys who aren’t on the Giants anymore. No current Giant has faced him more than three times. The Giants are hitting LHP (.753 OPS) somewhat better than RHP (.695 OPS) and are 19-14 vs. LH starters (29-36 vs. RH starters) this year.

Alex Wood is not having nearly the year he had in 2021, one of the reasons the Giants are struggling. After holding the Padres to three hits in seven innings July 10, Wood hasn’t made it out of the fifth inning in his last two outings.

He hasn’t faced the Cubs since August 8, 2019 when he was with the Reds, and of course most of those guys are long gone.

No current Cub has faced Wood more than seven times.

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 Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants 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 year’s, 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.