Chicago Cubs vs. Toronto Blue Jays preview, Wednesday 8/31, 6:07 CT

TORONTO — Wednesday notes...

• THE END OF THE MONTH: The Cubs are 14-15 in August. A win would give them their first non-losing month since May 2021. With 14 wins, they have already won more games than in any calendar month since May 2021.
• HOPEFULLY, FINISHING THE YEAR STRONG: Seiya Suzuki, last 11 games since August 21: .389/.476/.556 (14-for-36), three doubles, a home run, six walks. He’s had five multi-hit games among those 11.
• NO K’S: Nick Madrigal enters tonight’s game having gone 34 consecutive plate appearances without a strikeout.
• FAKE TURF: The series in Toronto is the Cubs’ second of three this season they will play on artificial turf. They went 2-1 in Arizona this May and next month will play three games in Miami. The nine 2023 games on artificial turf will be the Cubs’ most since 2003, when they played 10 such games (four in Philadelphia, three in Montreal and three in Toronto).
• CUBS NORTH OF THE BORDER: All-time in Canada, entering tonight the Cubs have won 111 games and lost 152 (108-144 vs. the Expos in Montreal and 3-8 vs. the Blue Jays in Toronto). That’s a .422 winning percentage, equivalent to a 68-94 regular season. The Cubs have not won a game in Canada since June 15, 2008.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Blue Jays lineup:

Luke Farrell, RHP vs. Mitch White, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Luke Farrell hadn’t pitched in eight days when the Cubs called him up from Triple-A Iowa to start against the Cardinals August 24. That was exactly a week ago. He threw 71 pitches in that game. Then, on three days’ rest, he threw 55 pitches against the Brewers Sunday in Milwaukee.

And now the Cubs are asking him to start on two days’ rest against the Blue Jays. Good luck, Luke. He’s likely going to be an opener and throw only a handful of innings, so this will be a bullpen game.

Farrell last started a game against the Blue Jays September 19, 2021 in Toronto. Trust me, you do not want to look at the results. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Bo Bichette homered off him.

The Blue Jays acquired Mitch White from the Dodgers at the trade deadline this year for a couple of minor leaguers. He had been a reliever/spot starter in L.A., but immediately went into the rotation in Toronto and the results have been ... mixed. He’s made a couple of good starts, but in his last outing August 26 he got torched for seven runs in five innings by the Angels. He hasn’t thrown more than five innings in any of his starts for the Jays.

White has one career relief appearance vs. the Cubs and it was before the 2021 selloff, so largely irrelevant to today. The only current Cub who’s faced him is Willson Contreras, who White walked in that May 2021 game at Wrigley Field.

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 Blue Jays market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Blue Jays site Bluebird Banter. If you do go there to interact with Blue Jays 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.