Chicago Cubs vs. Colorado Rockies preview, Saturday 9/17, 1:20 CT

Today's roster moves: Here

Saturday notes...

• ATTENDANCE WATCH: Through Friday’s game, the Cubs have announced 2,376,179 tickets sold through 73 dates, an average of 32,550 per date. They must average 27,978 tickets sold for the eight 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.
• MCKINSTRY HEATS UP: Zach McKinstry’s triple and home run Friday gave him six multi-hit games in 32 games as a Cub. In his last four games with an at-bat, he is 8-for-18 (.444) with a double, two triples, two home runs and three RBI, and he has registered six hits in nine at-bats in his last two games at Wrigley Field (also 4-for-5 on September 11).
• STARTING PITCHING: Cubs starting pitchers have posted a 3.03 ERA (90 earned runs in 267 innings) since the All-Star break, the third-best mark in the majors during that span.
• SCORING FIRST: The Cubs have scored 92 runs in the first inning this season and 170 during the game’s first two innings, the second-most in the majors behind the Dodgers (192). However, the Cubs are just 21-22 when leading after the first inning and 34-26 when leading after the second.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Rockies lineup:

Hayden Wesneski, RHP vs. Jose Ureña, RHP

Hayden Wesneski has made two MLB appearances for the Cubs, both in relief. The first one was outstanding; the second, not quite so much. Overall: 8⅔ innings, six hits, two walks (0.923 WHIP), three runs (two HR), 3.12 ERA.

He has obviously never faced the Rockies or anyone on their active roster. The graphic below shows a pretty good mix of pitches, so far in the major leagues (149 pitches) he’s relied primarily on his slider, though there’s a good mix of various types of fastballs as well.

Good luck in your first MLB start, Hayden!

Jose Ureña has been around since the Marlins let him go at the end of 2020. He spent last year with the Tigers and has been with both the Brewers and Rockies this year.

He threw an inning-plus in garbage time for the Brewers against the Cubs April 9, and in 13 starts for the Rox he’s posted a 6.08 ERA and 1.650 WHIP, which are not good numbers.

When he was with the Marlins he had a reputation as a bit of a headhunter, leading the league in HBP in 2017 and 2018. But he has not hit a batter at all in 74⅓ innings this year, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

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.