Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals preview, Wednesday 8/10, 1:20 CT

Wednesday notes...

• LOTS OF SINGLES: The Cubs recorded seven singles in the seventh inning Tuesday night, the first time they posted an inning with at least seven singles since June 30, 2018 vs. Minnesota (5th inning). The Cubs won that game 14-9.
• SEIYA SUZUKI: ... is 4-for-8 in the series vs. Washington with three runs scored.
• NICO AT WRIGLEY: Nico Hoerner at home: .341/.382/.443 in 47 games (178 PA). Nico Hoerner on road: .253/.298/.380 in 47 games (178 PA).
• NELSON!: Nelson Velázquez, last 14 games since July 22: .310/.429/.724 (9-for-29) with four home runs and seven runs scored. His season OPS is up to .803 in 102 PA.
• HAPP-ENINGS: Ian Happ has 28 doubles and has a chance at a 40-double season. The last Cub to hit 40 doubles in a season was Javier Báez, who had 40 in 2018.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Nationals lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Josiah Gray, RHP

Justin Steele, 10 starts since June 1: 2.43 ERA, 1.294 WHIP, only four home runs allowed in 55⅔ innings. That’s really good!

His last start, in which he didn’t finish the fifth inning but struck out 10, was historic:

You can sense that Steele is just on the verge of becoming a solid rotation starter. He’s just got to throw more strikes — even with all the strikeouts, he’s running a lot of long counts. He threw 93 pitches in that outing last Friday.

He made two relief appearances against the Nats last year, but the only Nats player who has seen him is recently-acquired Luke Voit (0-for-3).

Josiah Gray was originally drafted by the Reds in the second round in 2018. He has since been involved in two major trades. In December 2018 he was sent to the Dodgers, along with Homer Bailey and Jeter Downs for Kyle Farmer, Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig and Alex Wood. Then at the trading deadline last year, he was dealt to Washington as part of the Max Scherzer trade.

He made 12 starts for the Nats last year and has made 20 this year and in those 32 starts has posted an ERA of 5.07 and WHIP of 1.322 with 43 (!) home runs allowed in 168⅔ innings. That’s ... a lot of home runs. (That’s also an average of only about 5⅓ innings per start.)

He has never faced the Cubs or anyone on the Cubs’ active roster. Since July 1, in six starts he has posted a 7.63 ERA and allowed 13 (!) home runs in 30⅔ innings.

Have fun this afternoon, Cubs hitters.

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 Nationals site Federal Baseball. If you do go there to interact with Nationals 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.