Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals preview, Monday 8/15, 6:05 CT

Monday notes...

• CUBS ROOKIES REPRESENT: Seiya Suzuki (16 doubles, nine home runs, 34 RBI) and Christopher Morel (13 doubles, 11 home runs, 32 RBI) are two of eight rookies in the majors, and two of three in the National League, with at least 10 doubles, nine homers and 30 RBI. Further, they have acheived this feat in the sixth and seventh fewest games, respectively. The Cubs and the Royals are the only teams with more than one player on this list.
• MORE ON A CUBS ROOKIE: Nelson Velázquez, last 17 games since July 22: .308/.413/.615 (12-for-39) with eight runs scored, four homers, 11 RBI, nearly as many walks (7) as strikeouts (9) and a 1.028 OPS.
• HAPP-ENSTANCE: The next home run Ian Happ hits will be his 11th this year. When he does that, he will become the sixth switch-hitter in MLB history with 11 homers in each of his first six seasons. The other five: Mark Teixeira, José Cruz, Rubén Sierra, Eddie Murray and Mickey Mantle.
• MORE HAPP-ENINGS: Happ, who has doubled in five of his last nine games, is the ninth Cubs switch-hitter to reach 30 doubles in a season. Most recently: Ben Zobrist with 31 in 2016.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Nationals lineup:

Also of interest for tonight:

Marcus Stroman, RHP vs. Josiah Gray, RHP

I’m just going to leave this here.

Marcus Stroman, home, 2022: six starts, 7.81 ERA, 1.482 WHIP, eight HR in 27⅔ innings
Marcus Stroman, road, 2022: nine starts, 2.26 ERA, 0.987 WHIP, four HR in 51⅔ innings

Explain this any way you want, but it certainly bodes well for tonight. The HR rate is almost four times as high at Wrigley as on the road, everything else is significantly better on the road. He allowed four runs in five innings (including two home runs) last week at Wrigley against the Nats in the only game the Cubs lost in that series.

He’ll pitch better than that tonight. Book it.

Josiah Gray had one of his better starts of his 2022 season last week at Wrigley Field — two runs in 6⅓ innings.

Gray has home/road splits that are the reverse of Stroman’s, though not quite as extreme:

Home: 10 starts, 6.75 ERA, 1.579 WHIP, 15 home runs in 50⅔ innings
Road: 11 starts, 3.21 ERA, 1.070 WHIP, 14 home runs in 61⅔ innings

Prediction: A Cubs win tonight.

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.