Chicago Cubs vs. Miami Marlins preview, Tuesday 9/20, 5:40 CT

Tuesday notes...

• THE BULLPEN: Over the last 10 games, the Cubs bullpen has posted a 2.92 ERA (12 earned runs in 37 innings) with 11 walks, 40 strikeouts and a .239 opponents BA (33-for-138).
• LOTS OF CUBS: The Cubs have used 64 players this season, 39 of whom have made their Cubs debuts. That breaks down as 25 position players and 39 pitchers (not including three position players who have pitched). It’s still five players short of the team (and MLB) record set last year.
• LET’S GET SOME RUNS: The Cubs are 48-25 (.658) when scoring four or more runs in a game, but 14-60 (.189) when scoring three or fewer runs.
• THE ROOKIE DID GOOD: Hayden Wesneski (seve innings, three hits, one earned run, no walks, seven strikeouts on Saturday) became the first Cubs rookie with a start of at least seven innings, while allowing one run or fewer, walking none and striking out at least seven batters since Mark Prior (July 19, 2002 vs. Houston).
• NOTE FOR TOMORROW’S GAME:

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Insert “other split squad” joke here.

Marlins lineup:

Adrian Sampson, RHP vs. Pablo Lopez, RHP

Adrian Sampson keeps plugging away, having a solid year for the Cubs, currently worth 1.5 bWAR — that’s pretty good for 17 appearances (15 starts).

August 7 at Wrigley Field, he allowed three runs in six innings against the Marlins. That would be helpful today, the six innings, anyway, considering that the last two Cubs starters didn’t combine for six total innings. Give the bullpen a break, Adrian.

The Cubs scored four runs in five innings off Pablo Lopez August 6 at Wrigley Field, including a home run by P.J. Higgins.

Since then, Lopez has posted a 5.40 ERA and 1.391 WHIP in seven starts, and the Marlins lost five of those seven games. Hopefully Cubs hitters can take advantage tonight.

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.