Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers preview, Friday 4/14, 9:10 CT

Today’s roster move: Here

Friday notes...

• CUBS vs. DODGERS: As noted in the series preview, the Cubs have lost 10 straight games to L.A. The teams have played 2,127 games against one another since 1890, when the Dodgers, based in Brooklyn and called the Bridegrooms, joined the National League. Only one other time, in all those years, did the Cubs drop 10 in a row to them. That happened from June 6-28, 1947. The Cubs were outscored in those games, 49-20. In the current streak, they have been outscored, 46-25. The Cubs’ seven straight losses at Los Angeles are still a long way from their record for consecutive defeats when visiting the Dodgers. They lost 11 straight in 1955-56 and 10 in 1965-66. The Cubs have lost 10 of 12 at Dodger Stadium going back to 2019. They have not won consecutive games there since May 3-4, 2011. Their record in Los Angeles since then is 8-26. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• STARTING PITCHING: Cubs starting pitchers have a 3.62 ERA (22 earned runs in 54⅔ innings) in the season’s early going, the second-best mark in the N.L. and seventh in the majors.
• MAN OF STEELE: Justin Steele comes into today’s game with an 0.75 ERA after going six innings in each of his first two starts and allowing just one run across the outings. (Marcus Stroman also accomplished that this year.) The last Cubs starter to open a season with more than two such starts was Jason Hammel, who did it four straight times in 2016. More on Steele below.
• HITTING THE OTHER GUY’S RELIEVERS: Cubs hitters have posted a .293 average (46-for-157) against relief pitchers this season, the fourth-highest mark in the majors behind Milwaukee (.319), Toronto (.295) and Arizona (.294).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Dodgers lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Noah Syndergaard, RHP

Justin Steele has continued his good second half of 2022 with two very good starts to begin 2023, although he issued a few too many walks in his last one, last Saturday against the Rangers.

Other than a scoreless inning of relief against the Dodgers in 2021, Steele’s only career start vs. L.A. happened May 8, 2022 at Wrigley Field. He allowed two runs in four innings, so that likely doesn’t have much predictive value.

The Cubs haven’t faced Noah Syndergaard since 2019, so that doesn’t have predictive value either. As noted in the series preview, he has made two starts, both vs. Arizona. One was good and the other was... not.

Dansby Swanson has had particular success against Syndergaard: 8-for-18 (.444) with a double.

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 Dodgers site True Blue LA. If you do go there to interact with Dodgers 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 2023 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.