Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants preview, Saturday 7/30, 8:05 CT

Today’s trade: Here

Today’s roster move: Here

Saturday notes...

• AGAIN, MORE CLOSE CALLS: Including Friday’s 4-2 win at San Francisco, the Cubs have played in 55 games decided by two or fewer runs, tied for third-most in the majors ... however, the team’s .400 winning percentage (22-33) in games decided by two or fewer runs is third-lowest in MLB.
• SOLID STARTING: Over the team’s last 10 games, Cubs starting pitchers have posted a 1.48 ERA (nine earned runs in 54⅔ innings), holding opponents to a .226 average (48-for-212) and just three homers allowed in 229 batters faced.
• ROAD WARRIOR: Patrick Wisdom has reached safely in each of his last 20 road games dating to June 12. The last Cub to have a longer stretch reaching safely on the road was Matt Duffy, who did it in 21 straight contests from August 13-October 3, 2021.
• A LACK OF WALKS: Scott Effross walked two batters Friday, the first time he had done so in an appearance in his career (61 games). Still, he has walked just 12 of 236 career batters faced, five percent, an excellent ratio.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Giants lineup:

Drew Smyly, LHP vs. Jakob Junis, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Drew Smyly has increased his trade value by good outings over his last two starts. Small sample size, to be sure, but he’s looked pretty good out there.

He made one relief appearance against the Giants last year (one inning) and no current Giant has more than six AB against him, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Last year the Giants tried some reclamation projects in their rotation and it worked to the tune of 107 wins.

This year they did the same with Jakob Junis and Junis has been okay, though he missed five weeks with a hamstring strain.

Since returning he’s made one relief appearance and one start, and has not thrown more than 62 pitches since June, so he might be on a pitch limit tonight. He has one career start against the Cubs, back in 2018, so that’s largely irrelevant now.

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.