Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants preview, Saturday 9/10, 1:20 CT

Saturday notes...

• ATTENDANCE WATCH: Through Friday, the Cubs have announced 2,274,314 tickets sold through 70 dates, an average of 32,490 per date. They must average 29,608 tickets sold for the 11 remaining dates to have 2.6 million for the season. The last time the Cubs announced fewer than 2.6 million tickets sold in a full-capacity season (2020 and 2021 excluded) was 1997.
• NICO WATCH: Nico Hoerner, last 15 games since August 24: .298/.344/.509 (17-for-57), two doubles, two triples, two home runs, four stolen bases. His steal Friday was his 18th, the most for any Cub since Javier Báez had 34 in 2018.
• RELIEVERS, GOOD AND BAD: Cubs relievers lead MLB in strikeouts with 616, far ahead of the second-best Twins (597). But... they are third-worst in walks (242). Only Pirates (246) and Royals (253) relievers have walked more.
• NOT WINNING THE CLOSE ONES: Friday was the Cubs’ 77th game of 2022 decided by two or fewer runs, the most in the major leagues. The Cubs are 19-25 in games decided by one run and 15-18 in games decided by two runs.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

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

Marcus Stroman, RHP vs. Logan Webb, RHP

USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK

Marcus Stroman in 11 starts since returning from the injured list: 2.49 ERA, 1.125 WHIP. That’s really good! Here’s hoping he can finish the year strong.

One of those 11 starts was against the Giants, July 29 in San Francisco. He threw six innings and allowed eight hits, but no runs.

There’s that thing this year where Stroman has not thrown well in Wrigley Field. Let’s hope he can break that bad string this afternoon.

Logan Webb was really good for last year’s Giants, who won the NL West. He’s been even better this year, but the Giants... haven’t.

Webb last faced the Cubs September 12, 2021 at Wrigley Field, where he threw six innings and allowed two runs. Funny thing, even though that was after last year’s selloff, nine of the 14 Cubs who played in that game are either on the injured list or no longer with the team. Lots of Cubs turnover lately.

That’s Webb’s only career start against the Cubs. After a rough start he’s been quite consistent for the last three months or so.

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 Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants 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 year’s, 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.