Chicago Cubs vs. Baltimore Orioles preview, Thursday 8/18, 2:05 CT

Here’s why the Cubs are playing this game today: A postponement June 8 in Baltimore. The Cubs have lost all three games to the Orioles so far this year and been outscored 20-6. Hopefully, this one turns out better.

Thursday notes...

• THE FRANIMAL: Franmil Reyes in seven games with the Cubs: .367/.367/.733 (11-for-30) with three doubles, a triple and two home runs.
• THE NICO FILES: Nico Hoerner, last 11 games since August 6: .390/.468/.561 (16-for-41), four doubles, a home run, six walks.
• THE NEW GUY: Steven Brault, six Cubs appearances: 7⅔ innings, 0.00 ERA, 0.913 WHIP, 28 batters faced, seven reached base, .160 opponents BA.
• HEY, LOOK AT THIS: Mark Leiter Jr., last eight games since July 10: 2.76 ERA, 0.918 WHIP, .167 opponents BA, 17 strikeouts and only five walks in 16⅓ innings.
• AND THIS: Sean Newcomb, last three outings: 0.00 ERA, .083 opponents BA, 17 batters faced, eight strikeouts.

Here are today’s particulars.

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

Orioles lineup:

Adrian Sampson, RHP vs. Spenser Watkins, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Adrian Sampson had a rough outing last Saturday against the Reds, but still kept his team in the game enough to position them to win.

He threw 5⅓ fairly good innings against the Orioles July 12 at Wrigley Field (three runs allowed). He’ll probably have to be a bit better than that this afternoon.

Spenser Watkins shut the Cubs down pretty well July 13 at Wrigley Field, allowing one run in five innings in a game Baltimore won 7-1.

Since that game he’s made four appearances (three starts) and got hit a bit harder: 5.03 ERA, 1.373 WHIP. .301 opponents BA.

Hopefully the Cubs will have figured him out a bit from that previous start.

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 Orioles site Camden Chat. If you do go there to interact with Orioles 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.