Chicago Cubs vs. Colorado Rockies preview, Friday 9/16, 1:20 CT

Friday notes...

• ATTENDANCE WATCH: Entering Friday’s game, the Cubs have announced 2,344,404 tickets sold through 72 dates, an average of 32,561 per date. They must average 28,400 tickets sold for the nine remaining dates to reach 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.
• SCORING EARLY, BUT NOT LATE: The Cubs’ six-run outburst in the first inning Wednesday has them tied for fourth in MLB in first-inning runs with 91. However, their 32 runs in the ninth inning ranks them 28th in MLB. Only the Astros and Rays have scored fewer in the ninth inning, and since those teams are both more than 20 games over .500 at home, they’d have fewer ninth inning opportunities.
• THEFTS: The Cubs rank third in MLB with 98 stolen bases (and 33 caught stealing, so a 75 percent success rate). They have three players in double figures (Nico Hoerner, 18; Rafael Ortega, 12; and Christopher Morel, 10). Seiya Suzuki has nine steals and Ian Happ has eight. The last time the Cubs had five players with 10 or more steals was 1991: Ced Landrum (27), Ryne Sandberg (22), Shawon Dunston (21), Doug Dascenzo (14) and Chico Walker (13).
• HE’S HOT: Seiya Suzuki, last 24 games since August 21: .337/.406/.535 (26-for-89), five doubles, four home runs, nine walks, 11 runs scored.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Rockies lineup:

Marcus Stroman, RHP vs. German Marquez, RHP

Marcus Stroman, Wrigley Field, I won’t belabor it.

He just needs to pitch better at home. Hopefully today is that day.

He started against the Rockies April 15 in Denver and that didn’t go well — five runs in four innings.

Just be better today, Marcus.

German Marquez has been a solid starter for Colorado the last few years but not in 2022, where he has a 5.25 ERA and 1.389 WHIP in 27 starts. He had a couple of good starts around the beginning of the month against the Mets and Reds and then the Diamondbacks torched him for nine runs in four innings in his last start.

In that April 15 game at Coors Field the Cubs notched 10 hits and four runs off Marquez in less than five innings. The Cubs lost that game anyway, 6-5.

He throws hard, as you can see in the graph below.

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 Rockies market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Rockies site Purple Row. If you do go there to interact with Rockies 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.