Chicago Cubs vs. Miami Marlins preview, Sunday 8/7, 1:20 CT

Sunday notes...

• THE PITCHING HAS BEEN REALLY GOOD: Cubs pitchers have posted a 2.38 ERA (40 earned runs in 151⅓ innings) over the team’s last 17 games, the lowest ERA in the majors during that span.
• THE NICO FILES: Nico Hoerner’s three-hit game Saturday was his 23rd multi-hit game and 10th three-plus hit game of the season. Nico is hitting .346/.386/.455 (54-for-156) in 44 games at Wrigley Field this year.
• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom hit his 20th home run of the season Thursday. That gave him two 20+ homer seasons with the team, and he’s the fifth Cubs third baseman to do that. The others: Ron Santo (11 times), Aramis Ramirez (seven), Kris Bryant (four) and Ron Cey (two).
• LOTS OF CUBS: The Cubs have used 53 different players this year. Of those 53, 13 are no longer in the Cubs organization. The franchise (and MLB) record for players used in a season is 69, set last year. Second-most is 56 in 2013.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Marlins lineup:

Adrian Sampson, RHP vs. Jesus Luzardo, LHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Adrian Sampson’s last start, against the Giants, wasn’t all that good, but he keeps plugging away, eating up innings.

He has never faced the Marlins. No one on their active roster has more than five career PA against Sampson, and the only Marlins players who have homered off him, Avisail Garcia and Jorge Soler, are both on the injured list.

So... maybe this will work out all right.

Jesus Luzardo made seven starts this year and then hit the IL in May with forearm issues. He’s made one start since his return, August 1 vs. the Reds, and allowed two runs in five innings, with no walks and five strikeouts.

The Cubs hit Luzardo pretty hard August 13, 2021 in Miami, scoring five runs in five innings. David Bote is one of two Cubs who homered off him that night.

He threw 81 pitches August 1, and is on extra rest, so I’d suspect he’ll be available to go six innings or more this afternoon.

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 Marlins site Fish Stripes. If you do go there to interact with Marlins 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.