Chicago Cubs vs. Boston Red Sox preview, Sunday 7/3, 1:20 CT

Sunday notes...

• STREAKING: The Cubs have won a season high-tying four-straight games (also May 14-17) and are 9-6 in their last 15 games and have won four consecutive games at home for the first time since September 2-6, 2021 (five).
• LOTS OF STARTERS: The Cubs have used 13 different starting pitchers this year, most in the National League.
• THE MOREL FILES: Christopher Morel has a five-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 10 of his last 11, in that span batting .327/.353/.571 (16-for-49) with three doubles and three home runs.
• THE HOERNER FILES: Nico Hoerner is batting .514/.548/.649 (19-for-37) over his last 10 games with two doubles and a home run. The .514 BA is the highest in MLB over that span, and he has raised his OPS from .686 to .776 over those 10 games.
• LEIT-ING IT UP: Saturday night, Mark Leiter Jr. earned the win, becoming the first Cubs reliever to earn a win while throwing at least 5⅓ innings and allowing one run or fewer since Glendon Rusch, July 15, 2004 vs. Milwaukee.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

The Red Sox lineup was not available at posting time. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Red Sox lineup.

Keegan Thompson, RHP vs. Connor Seabold, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

After a bit of a speed bump to his 2022 season in Baltimore and New York in early June, Keegan Thompson has posted a 2.45 ERA and 0.927 WHIP over his last three starts, with three walks, 24 strikeouts and only one home run in his last 18⅓ innings.

He has never faced the Red Sox or anyone on their active roster.

All I can say is: Keep up the good work!

Connor Seabold was the Phillies’ third-round choice in 2017 and came to the Red Sox along with Nick Pivetta in August 2020 for Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree.

He has made two MLB starts, one last year and one this year. He got hit pretty hard by the Blue Jays last Monday in Toronto. Since he didn’t make 100 pitches in MLB either last year or this year, there’s no pitch selection graphic available for him from Statcast. He’s obviously never faced the Cubs or anyone on the Cubs’ active roster. He did post a 2.09 ERA and 0.987 WHIP in 11 starts for Triple-A Worcester this year.

So let’s hope the Cubs have a good scouting report on him.

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 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.