Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers preview, Saturday 7/9, 9:10 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Saturday notes...

• DODGER STADIUM BLUES: The Cubs have lost eight of the last 10 games they have played at Dodger Stadium dating to 2019. In those 10 games they have been outscored 41-25, so they have held L.A.’s offense down reasonably well, just have been unable to score much.
• THE NICO FILES: Nico Hoerner, last 18 games since June 20: .382/.427/.515 (26-for-68) with three doubles, two home runs, six walks and 10 runs scored.
• LOSING THE CLOSE ONES: Six of the Cubs’ last eight games have been decided by two or fewer runs. On the season, the Cubs have gone 17-27 (.386) in games decided by two or fewer runs. They’re also 10-16 in one-run games and 3-9 in extra innings following Friday’s loss.
• MORE ON RUNS (OR THE LACK THEREOF): When scoring four or more runs this year, the Cubs are 27-17, but when scoring fewer than four: 7-33.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Dodgers lineup:

Marcus Stroman, RHP vs. Clayton Kershaw, LHP

Marcus Stroman returns today from a nearly one-month stint on the injured list with shoulder issues. He also spent some time on the COVID-19 list, so he’s made just nine starts in 2022. Of those, six were good-to-excellent and the other three... well, those are the reason he has a 5.32 ERA and 1.225 WHIP and eight home runs allowed in 47⅓ innings.

The last time he faced the Dodgers was August 22, 2021, and he allowed two runs in six innings, with six strikeouts. I’d take another one of those tonight.

Only one Dodgers hitter has more than a handful of at-bats vs. Stroman: Mookie Betts, who is 8-for-37 (.216) with nine strikeouts against the Cubs righthander.

Clayton Kershaw is still good, just not otherworldly good like he was from 2011-17. Most of that is due to various injuries, and he spent some time on the IL this year with yet another injury.

Since his return: five starts, 3.46 ERA, 1.426 WHIP. Which, again, is good but not otherworldly good.

He did throw seven shutout innings against the Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader May 7 at Wrigley Field — which was just before he went on the IL. I remember Cubs hitters looking pretty helpless against him that day. Perhaps tonight will be better.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Dodgers market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Dodgers site True Blue LA. If you do go there to interact with Dodgers 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.