Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers preview, Saturday 4/15, 8:10 CT

Saturday notes...

• JACKIE ROBINSON DAY: All players around MLB will be wearing Robinson’s No. 42 tonight in honor of the trailblazing Brooklyn Dodgers star, and the numbers will be in the style and color of the Dodgers numbers of the time. This year, MLB is also celebrating the opening last fall of the Jackie Robinson Museum in New York City. “I am thrilled to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Jackie Robinson Foundation along with the first year of our new Jackie Robinson Museum,” said Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, in a statement. “I thank Major League Baseball, the teams, players and fans for celebrating this legacy on Saturday and throughout the year. On behalf of our family, I want to wish everyone a truly wonderful Jackie Robinson Day.”
• MORE JACKIE ROBINSON DAY: The Cubs are 4-16 all-time on Jackie Robinson Day since its creation in 2004, including losing a doubleheader to the Yankees on that date in 2014. The last Cubs win on Jackie Robinson Day was in 2019, a 7-2 win over the Marlins in Miami.
• MORE JACKIE ROBINSON DAY:

• ALL THOSE HOME RUNS: Last night’s game was the Cubs’ 358th at Los Angeles since the Dodgers moved there in 1958. It was the first in which the Cubs hit five home runs. They did it only once in 697 games at Brooklyn from 1890-1957, so they now have homered five times on the road against the Dodgers twice — in 1,055 total games! The game at Brooklyn was on July 13, 1951. The Cubs lost, 8-6, despite two homers by Randy Jackson and one each by Frank Baumholtz, Hank Sauer and Roy Smalley. The Cubs have hit five homers at home against the Dodgers twice: a 10-8 win on May 30, 1958 and a 13-9 loss on August 1, 1997. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• LOVE THAT PACE OF PLAY: Friday night’s game was completed in 2 hours, 20 minutes. The teams had played 73 previous games at Dodger Stadium since 2000. Only two were shorter: 1:59 on April 17, 2006 (Cubs won, 4-1) and 2:15 on July 8, 2010 (Cubs lost, 3-2). The next shortest game was 2:27. Of those 73 games, nearly half (36) took three hours or more. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Dodgers lineup:

Jameson Taillon, RHP vs. Michael Grove, RHP

Jameson Taillon has had a rough go of it in two starts so far with the Cubs, with ugly numbers. The last one, last Sunday against the Rangers, wasn’t as bad as it appeared, in my view, and he did strike out seven.

He hasn’t faced the Dodgers since 2018, so nothing relevant there.

Of all people, the current Dodger who has hit him best is... Jason Heyward (8-for-20, .400, a double, two walks).

Michael Grove had a good outing against the Rockies and then got absolutely torched by the Diamondbacks (12 hits and nine runs and didn’t finish the fourth inning).

Grove is making his 10th MLB appearance (ninth start) tonight. Grove was the Dodgers’ second-round Draft selection in 2018 (the same round the Cubs took Brennen Davis, six picks earlier). He has never faced the Cubs or anyone on the Cubs’ active roster. Sometimes that works for the pitcher, other times not. “As always, we await developments.”

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.